The sentiment towards Solana on social media has shifted to a negative one. Many analysts and traders are rejecting the chain as a meme coin casino after the Libra incident involving the token shared by Argentine President Javier Milei.
Solana, one of the chains with the most significant growth in the crypto space in recent years, is facing a negative backlash due to the numerous rug pulls resulting from meme coin launches on its network.
Several analysts and traders have criticized Solana’s core and ethos structures, including Meteora, a native Solana-based meme coin platform that also is facing allegations of insider trading and sniping. The accusations grew after the launch of Libra, a token that was shared by Argentine President Javier Milei using his personal X account, causing losses to over 44,000 investors.
Read more: The Libra Incident: Examining Argentine President Javier Milei’s Confusing Token Endorsement and Its Destructive Aftermath
The scandal caused Meteora’s co-founder Ben Chow to abandon his role at the project, and his associate Meow, who is also the founder of Jupiter, to enlist the help of Fenwick & West, a law firm, to conduct an investigation and issue a report on the possible wrongdoing.
Beanie, an investor in GM Capital, lamented these developments, but also recognized that these issues had to come to light. “It’s the washout that we need. Just like FTX and Luna,” he assessed.
He stressed:
The game is rigged. Entire foundation of Solana is essentially a “max extract” engine called Meteora / Jupiter. All the way to the top.
The performance of Solana has suffered in the last 7 days, with its price dropping by 15% at the time of writing. Crypto analyst Miles Deutscher noted that Solana’s fee burn numbers fell to $177,000 on February 17, reaching one of its lowest levels in months.
“People are tired of getting burned at the casino, and many are walking away from the tables,” he highlighted.
Nonetheless, others think this behavior will be only temporary, and that Solana will rise again, as the chain is also host to other use cases.
“Solana being a memecoin casino is a feature, not a bug. Hate the game, not the player. Also, there’s far more to Solana than memecoins. If you think it’s only a memecoin casino pls seek help,” remarked Nick Garcia, Messari’s research manager.