A surge in inflammatory memecoins on March 22 has sparked backlash from members of the Solana community and the wider crypto ecosystem. Unknown parties took advantage of Solana’s token creation feature to introduce thousands of memecoins with racist, antisemitic, and anti-China terminology in their names, sparking outrage.
Solana founder and CEO Anatoly Yakovenko condemned the trend on social media, simply stating, “F’ these anti-Semitic racist incels.”
In response to the rise in offensive memecoins, DEX Screener, a popular third-party service that monitors tokens on various blockchains including Solana, announced that it would review its policies. The company stated, “We won’t be the gatekeepers of what happens on-chain, but we’re definitely not here to spread hate.”
Despite a slight decrease in the trend, it remains unclear whether DEX Screener has taken action against it. Some offensive tokens have been replaced by memecoins like “Stop Racism on Solana” and “F— DEX Screener.”
The crypto industry has been swept up in a memecoin frenzy for months, with Solana’s low costs and fast transactions making it a hub for memecoin trading. SolanaFM reported that over 20,000 new tokens are created daily on the network, boosted by its low transaction fees compared to other blockchains. While Ethereum transaction fees average above $9.00, Solana’s fees are mere fractions of a cent.
In the past 24 hours, almost all of the top 50 trending cryptos on DEX Screener have been circulating, at least in part, on Solana. The surge in memecoins has raised questions about regulation and moderation in the crypto space.
