Are Meme Coins ”Over?” Libra Rug Pull Fiasco Exposes Risks—But One ICO Aims To Fix Them

Concerns are rising that meme coins are “over” after the Libra rug pull left investors reeling.

The Solana-based LIBRA, endorsed briefly by Argentine President Javier Milei, soared to a $4.5 billion market cap before plummeting 80% within hours, resulting in massive losses for many.

Milei has denied direct involvement, while Kelsier CEO Hayden Davis told Coffeezilla that he was behind both the LIBRA and MELANIA meme coins, and sniped both tokens when they went live.

Meme Coins ”Cooked” After Series Of Unfair Launches

Following the collapse of the LIBRA token, and the implosions of the Official Trump and MELANIA meme tokens, the meme coin sector’s credibility has taken a heavy blow.

The sector is ”cooked,” said Nic Carter, a partner at Castle Island Ventures, in a Feb. 19 post on X.

“A sense of gloom and cynicism pervades crypto, because memecoins in a sense were considered the last ‘fair’ terrain where anyone could make money,” he said. “This illusion has been shattered. Memecoins are unquestionably over.”

The Libra meme coin fiasco was just the latest in a series of unfair and botted launches, he added. “The casino didn’t take a slight edge – it was more like 90/10 in favor of the house.”

Memecoins are unquestionably over. (Obviously, they won’t fully disappear, but the trade is gone). Reason being, the entire premise of memecoins was that they were “fair launch” opportunities where John Q Retail had just as good a shot at making money as the funds and VCs. This… https://t.co/TtkpD4sSXO

— nic golden age carter (@nic__carter) February 19, 2025

AuzSome Austin on X put things more bluntly, saying that he’d come to the realization ”that meme coins have officially become the death of crypto.”

Coinbase CEO Keeping An Open Mind

Still, not everyone is so downbeat on the outlook for the sector. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says we should remain open minded about where meme coins are going, ”even if some are silly, offensive, or even fraudulent today.” 

“So where do we go from here?” he said. “We should purge the bad actors and lift up the people trying to build lasting value. We want to bring the next billion users onchain, and the only way to do this is to build products and services which people want.”

How To Invest In Meme Coins Safely?

Building products that people want is exactly what a new meme coin ICO called Meme Index (MEMEX) is trying to do.

It aims to make meme coin investing safer by providing diversified portfolios that reduce the risk of all-or-nothing gambles on coins like LIBRA, TRUMP or MELANIA.

Investors who buy the token are offered four meme coin funds to invest in: Meme Titan, Moonshot, Midcap, and Meme Frenzy,.

Each comes with a different risk-reward profile. Meme Titan is the safest option, investing in meme coins valued at over $1 billion, including titans like Dogecoin ($DOGE), Shiba Inu ($SHIB), and Pepe ($PEPE).

The riskiest fund, which also has the highest potential rewards, is Meme Frenzy. It invests in meme coins with a market cap of less than $50 million.

The two other funds are Moonshot, which invests in tokens with values ranging ranging from $250 million to about $1 billion, and Midcap, which holds meme coins valued at between $50 million and $250 million.

The MEMEX presale has surged past $3.78 million in funding as investors back its idea of a new, safer way to invest in meme coins.

As influential YouTuber ClayBro said in a recent video for his more than 136k subscribers, ”Meme Index is changing the meme coin game.”

Related Articles:

• BTC Bull Token Raises $2.3M
• Strategy To Raise Another $2 Billion To Buy More Bitcoin
• XRP Price Prediction for Today, February 19