Donald Trump’s recently launched meme coin forms part of a massive influx of crypto tokens to the market that the industry is struggling to cope with, leading figures have warned.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who heads one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, revealed that around 1 million new tokens are being created every week.
The unprecedented surge in memecoins and so-called shitcoins have made it impossible to evaluate each new token on an individual basis, the tech boss revealed, meaning new methods are needed for listing and regulating crypto assets.
“We need to rethink our listing process at Coinbase given there are ~1m tokens a week being created now, and growing,” Mr Armstrong wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
“High quality problem to have, but evaluating each one by one is no longer feasible. And regulators need to understand that applying for approval for each one is totally infeasible at this point as well (they can’t do 1m a week).”
Trump launched his $TRUMP meme coin just days before entering the White House last week, triggering significant market volatility as investors anticipated whether or not he would introduce the pro-crypto policies he had promised during his campaign.
The first action was taken on the fourth day of his presidency, with an executive order establishing a cryptocurrency working group tasked with overhauling digital asset regulations.
The arrival of new tools to launch meme coins means the process has been significantly simplified in recent years, allowing people to profit from popular memes or social media influencers.
US lawmakers have cautioned against the trend, with Democratic Senator Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez saying during a recent podcast appearance that stricter regulation is needed to protect consumers against scammers and criminals.
“People do not really understand, nor should they frankly, [meme coins],” she told The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart. “At the end of the day, a lot of crypto is just scamming poor people and money laundering for wealthy people.”
