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    Are meme coins and influencers sabotaging the future of crypto?

    How Meme coins and influencers are damaging crypto’s credibility

    Over 76% of meme coins promoted by influencers fail within months, leaving investors at a loss, while also hurting the crypto sector’s credibility.

    A recent study by CoinWire reveals the risks posed by meme coins endorsed by influencers on X, with most of these tokens collapsing in value within months.

    These promotions, frequently driven by financial motive, have led to significant losses for investors and damaged the industry’s credibility.

    The report analysed over 1,500 meme coins promoted by 377 influencers with at least 10,000 followers.

    It found that 76% of these influencers endorsed tokens that became “dead,” with the report stating that their value dropped by 90% or more within three months.

    Majority of promoted tokens fail

    Nearly two-thirds of the meme coins influencers promoted were worthless, according to the researchers.

    Using data from Dune Analytics, researchers examined the prices of these tokens at the time of promotion, as well as their values after one week, one month, and three months. 

    The findings revealed that 80% of meme coins lost 70% of their value within the first week.

    Within a month, 90% had declined by 80%, and after three months, 86% had lost over ten times their initial value..

    While meme coins are marketed as opportunities for significant returns, the reality is completely different.

    Researchers found that only 3% of meme coins promoted by influencers achieved any notable gains, and only 1% of influencers successfully endorsed profitable tokens, adding that most investors often face heavy losses merely weeks after buying in.

    Interestingly, influencers with arger audiences performed the worst.

    Notably, those with over 200,000 followers saw the meme coins they promoted lose 39% of their value within a week and 89% after three months, while smaller figures had a better success rate.

    Influencers always win

    But influencers aren’t the ones at loss in most cases, the report added.

    The study found that influencers earned an average of $399 per promotional tweet, for posts that manage rake in roughly 15,000 views.

    As a result, influencers are often financially motivated to endorse even the most dubious of meme coins.

    The report noted:

    For them, the financial rewards are clear, even if the consequences for their audience are not.

    Further, the report highlighted that a lot of influencers end up removing promotional tweets that don’t bear positive results for their audiences, warning that the “actual situation is expected to be far worse.”

    Meme coins are hurting the industry

    Many market pundits agree that meme coins, often seen as the fun and quirky side of crypto, have undeniably brought a wave of accessibility to the industry.

    However, others caution that this accessibility often masks the deeper issues they create.

    This accessibility comes at a cost, the majority of memecoins are speculative traps with no intrinsic value, and the data shows that most investors suffer significant losses,” Georgii Verbitskii, founder of TYMIO, told Invezz.

    According to Verbitskii, the hype-driven nature of meme coins, amplified by influencer promotions, prioritises short-term gains over meaningful blockchain innovations, diverting attention from the technology’s true potential.

    “Memecoins undermine trust in the broader crypto ecosystem,” Verbitskii noted, while advocating for “use-case-driven innovations” to foster sustainable growth in the sector—a sentiment also echoed by Binance founder Changpeng Zhao in a recent X post.

    The post Are meme coins and influencers sabotaging the future of crypto? appeared first on Invezz

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