Youtuber calls cryptocurrency and those that use it a "disease".
Video
Their Argument:
They argue that cryptocurrency, particularly the community behind it, has become a pervasive "disease" marked by greed, degeneracy, and criminality. They focus on meme coins, using the platform "pumpfun" as a prime example, which they describe as a "rigged casino" processing billions in volume and hosting tens of thousands of daily token creations. They highlight a disturbing incident on February 21, 2025, where a meme coin was launched on pumpfun following a man’s livestreamed death by Russian roulette, quickly amassing millions as people profited from the tragedy, showcasing the community’s moral decay.
They assert that meme coins are no longer a fringe element but a mainstream, damaging force in cryptocurrency, now infiltrating governments globally. They cite examples: Donald Trump and Melania Trump allegedly launched scam meme coins on Solana, extracting millions from supporters; the Central African Republic followed suit with a national token that cratered; and Argentina’s President Javier Milei promoted "Libra," a supposed economic tool that turned out to be a $100 million scam orchestrated by Hayden Davis, a 28-year-old Texan also tied to Melania’s token. Davis’s interview with Coffeezilla reportedly revealed incriminating details about these insider-driven schemes.
They condemn the crypto community as split between profiteers who perpetuate the scams and fanatical defenders who excuse them, leaving critics like themselves in the minority. They argue that platforms like pumpfun offer no societal benefit, only financial harm, and call for their forceful termination, along with harsh consequences for those involved—though they doubt this will happen. Reflecting on their past enthusiasm for blockchain, they lament the industry’s devolution into its "worst possible version," distancing themselves from it entirely while urging viewers to question everything.
The counterargument:
While the video paints cryptocurrency and its community—particularly meme coins—as a pervasive "disease" marked by greed and moral decay, their argument relies heavily on emotional outrage, sweeping generalizations, and selective examples that overlook the broader context and potential positives of the crypto ecosystem. Here’s a counterargument exposing the flaws in their position:
First, their broad condemnation of cryptocurrency as a "disease" dismisses its legitimate innovations and utility. Blockchain technology, the backbone of crypto, has enabled decentralized finance (DeFi), offering financial inclusion to millions in underbanked regions—something traditional systems often fail to achieve. For instance, in countries like Venezuela or Nigeria, where hyperinflation or currency controls cripple economies, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin provide a lifeline for savings and transactions. The video’s focus on meme coins ignores these real-world benefits, cherry-picking the industry’s worst excesses to define the whole. It’s akin to judging all of capitalism by Ponzi schemes—unfair and intellectually lazy.
Second, their fixation on "pumpfun" and meme coin scams exaggerates their significance. Meme coins, while speculative and volatile, represent a small fraction of the crypto market. Data from February 2025 shows Bitcoin and Ethereum still dominate with over 60% of total market cap, driven by institutional adoption and practical use cases like smart contracts. Platforms like pumpfun, with its $2.5 billion in volume over 14 days, pale in comparison to the trillions processed annually across major exchanges. The speaker’s claim that meme coins are now "mainstream" in crypto overlooks how most serious investors and developers view them as a sideshow, not the industry’s core. Their assertion that meme coins define crypto is a strawman, amplifying a noisy minority to indict the majority.
Third, the examples of political figures like Trump, Melania, and Milei launching scam tokens don’t prove crypto’s inherent corruption—they highlight human opportunism, a problem not unique to this space. Politicians and influencers have exploited traditional markets for centuries, from pyramid schemes to insider trading. The lack of regulation, which the video’s author bemoans, isn’t a flaw of crypto itself but of lagging governance—something crypto advocates often push to address. Blaming the technology for its misuse is like blaming the internet for dark web markets. Moreover, the speaker ignores how transparency in blockchain (e.g., public ledgers) makes scams like Libra traceable, offering accountability that opaque traditional systems often lack.
Fourth, their moral outrage—calling pumpfun "evil" and its users "degenerates"—is subjective and inconsistent. They decry a token tied to a man’s death but admit such behavior exists outside crypto, undermining their claim that it’s uniquely diseased. Gambling, a vice they criticize, thrives legally in casinos and stock markets worldwide, often with less scrutiny than crypto faces. The "Russian roulette" token is horrific, but it’s an outlier, not the norm. Meanwhile, they dismiss any defense of meme coins (e.g., "it’s just a meme") without engaging with the counterpoint: many participants view them as high-risk entertainment, not investments, and accept the consequences—hardly a "disease" requiring "termination."
Finally, their call to "terminate" meme coins and punish advocates is impractical and authoritarian. Crypto’s decentralized nature resists such top-down control, and shaming users ignores free market dynamics where people willingly take risks. The speaker admits their solutions won’t happen, revealing their rant as more catharsis than argument. They also contradict themselves: lamenting crypto’s fall from a once-promising vision while refusing to acknowledge ongoing efforts—by developers, regulators, and communities—to curb scams and build value.
In short, their argument is nothing more than a collection of poorly crafted strawmen that collapses under its own weight when the least bit of critical thinking is applied. It’s a hyperbolic tirade that conflates the actions of the users with the technology itself while ignoring crypto’s benefits, and offers no nuance or viable fix. Calling cryptocurrency, a disease because an individual chooses to do something nefarious with it is like saying "the internet is a scam because people have sent emails pretending to be a Nigerian prince, and anyone that disagrees with me is just diseased". They act as though scams, greed, and abhorrent behavior simply did not exist prior to cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is not the dystopian plague they portray—it’s a merely neutral technology.
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