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- Solana co-founder’s “digital slop” memecoin comment draws backlash from core SOL community.
- Despite controversy, the SOL price stays above $190, backed by strong memecoin activity across the network.
Solana (SOL) price held steady above $190 on Sunday. However, while the price of the digital asset stayed strong, Solana’s co-founder, Anatoly Yakovenko, found himself facing community backlash. He called memecoins and NFTs digital slop in a post on X.
The comment has sparked a fresh debate in the crypto space, particularly since memecoins have played a big role in Solana’s recent growth.
Yakovenko Faces Backlash After Criticising
It is worth noting that Anatoly Yakovenko, one of the key names behind Solana, has stirred controversy online. Over the weekend, he described memecoins and NFTs as “digital slop” and said they carry no real value. The statement was made during a debate with Jesse Pollak, the creator of Base.
As reported, Yakovenko argued that these tokens are similar to loot boxes found in mobile games. He described them as random digital rewards often bought with real money. He said their worth is decided by what people are willing to pay, not by the content itself.
However, Pollak pushed back, saying that some NFTs do have value in the same way that a painting has value, even if creators do not charge people to see it. Despite his harsh words, Yakovenko admitted that Solana would not have grown this much without memecoins. He compared their impact to how loot boxes help drive revenue for Apple’s apps. He said if Apple removed them, its earnings would also drop sharply.
His post drew criticism from Solana supporters. Some users called him out for mocking the same memecoin traders who helped build Solana’s current popularity. One commentator said Yakovenko continues to promote memecoins while publicly saying they are worthless, calling that approach dishonest.
Meanwhile, as part of the project plans to strengthen its network, CNF reported that Solana recently increased its block capacity by 20%. This lifted the per-block compute unit (CU) limit from 50 million to 60 million.
Similarly, as highlighted in our previous news brief, MoonPay recently introduced liquid staking for Solana with flexible access, no lock-up, and real-time mpSOL rewards.
Memecoins Still Power Solana Revenue
Even with Anatoly Yakovenko’s disapproval, memecoins remain a major source of income for the Solana network. Data from Syndica shows that 62% of Solana’s dApp revenue in June came from memecoin activity. Interestingly, that is the highest ever.
In the first half of 2025, Solana made about $1.6 billion in revenue. Most of that was from platforms tied to memecoins. Pump.fun, a launchpad for Solana memecoins, and its trading partner, PumpSwap, have been at the forefront of the space.
However, there is growing competition. LetsBonk, a newer platform, has recently overtaken Pump.fun in daily earnings on several occasions. For now, the SOL price remains steady. As of the time of writing, it is trading at $191.89, up 2.74%. Still, the ongoing debate has opened fresh questions about the long-term role of memecoins in Solana’s ecosystem.
Solana is also a major chain being integrated by top crypto platforms. As noted in our earlier post, Moonpay recently integrated Solana, one of the many partnerships that proponents believe can fuel the SOL price uptick.
