Opinion by: Sasha Ivanov, founder of Waves and Units.Network

Not long ago, the idea that an internet joke could become a multibillion-dollar asset class seemed laughable. Today, memecoins are not just mainstream. They are reshaping entire market cycles. The US now has an official memecoin associated with the president. What started as a niche community experiment has become a financial force too big to ignore.

This isn’t simply speculation. In November 2024, memecoins accounted for 65% of the total trading volume on the decentralized exchange Raydium, an all-time high. Once dismissed as internet gimmicks, these assets have become crypto’s cultural engine. This phenomenon has been causing a slight identity crisis for believers and skeptics, who need to rethink their positions. 

Whether viewed as the next retail-driven market movement or an unsustainable mania, one thing is clear: Memecoins are no longer a joke.

Memecoins are more than speculation

At their core, memecoins thrive on community belief. Traditional financial assets derive value from utility, institutional adoption or revenue models. Memecoins, by contrast, are driven by social engagement, virality and the power of collective momentum.

That makes them one of the most effective onboarding tools for retail investors in crypto. Memecoins strip away the complexity of blockchain technology, making digital assets approachable, familiar and culturally relevant. For many, they are the first step into Web3, opening the door to decentralized trading, governance and finance.

What makes them accessible, however, also makes them volatile. The same market mechanics that send memecoins soaring to billion-dollar valuations overnight can just as easily cause them to collapse within days. While one trader might turn $66 into a $3 million profit, thousands of others end up holding worthless tokens when the hype fades.

The volatility problem no one can ignore

The numbers tell the story. When Elon Musk changed his X username and profile picture, a memecoin linked to him skyrocketed to a $380 million market cap. Once Musk reversed the changes, the coin plunged to $100 million before plummeting even further.

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This is not an exception. This is the memecoin market in action. It is unpredictable, profit-driven and fueled by speculation. While some traders thrive in this environment, most do not. The skeptics argue that memecoins are little more than a casino with a blockchain — a game where few win and most lose.

Dismissing memecoins outright ignores a larger reality. Memecoins aren’t going away, regardless of the skepticism. They are shaping market trends. The real question is: Can memecoins transition from hype-driven speculation to a structured financial asset with governance and longevity?

Governance is the key to long-term survival

If memecoins are to evolve beyond short-term trading cycles, governance must take center stage. Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) offer a model that allows holders to shape token supply, enforce transparency and influence project direction to give memecoins a real shot at sustainability.

This structure prevents centralized control by developers and whales, reducing the risk of insider manipulation, exit scams and pump-and-dump schemes. It also ensures that memecoins can integrate treasury management, staking incentives and token supply models that promote long-term viability rather than short-lived speculation.

A prime example is Floki Inu (FLOKI), a memecoin that successfully built a functional ecosystem beyond meme-driven trading. Rather than relying on short-term speculation, Floki Inu integrated non-fungible token (NFT) gaming, payments and educational initiatives, proving that memecoins can evolve into structured, community-driven assets.

Memecoins don’t need to abandon their cultural origins, but to survive beyond the current hype cycle, they must adopt governance mechanisms that promote economic sustainability.

Memecoins are at a crossroads

Memecoins have divided the crypto space into two extreme camps. On one side, memecoin maximalists insist that this bull market will be dominated by memecoins, arguing that belief and virality alone are enough to sustain them. On the other, skeptics dismiss them entirely, viewing them as pump-and-dump schemes that will eventually implode.

Both perspectives miss the bigger picture. Memecoins have proven their ability to drive market activity, but ignoring their risks is just as reckless as dismissing them outright. The real challenge is not whether memecoins should exist. They already do. The question is how to structure them to ensure security for investors, stability for the market and long-term credibility for the industry.

Builders, regulators and communities must collaborate to balance decentralization and responsible governance. Ignoring memecoins as a passing trend would be shortsighted. Failing to address their risks could be even worse — potentially leading to a catastrophic collapse that damages public trust in crypto as a whole.

Memecoins are here to stay. The real test is whether they will remain a speculative rollercoaster or mature into a legitimate digital economy sector. The answer lies not just with traders but with the builders, developers and policymakers shaping blockchain’s future.

Opinion by: Sasha Ivanov, founder of Waves and Units.Network.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Officials with India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) announced the arrest of Lithuanian national Aleksej Bešciokov, who was alleged to have operated the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex. 

In a March 12 notice, the CBI said police in the Indian state of Kerala had coordinated with national authorities to arrest Bešciokov. The Lithuanian national was reportedly vacationing in India with his family and planning to leave the country. The arrest of the alleged Garantex founder was based on US charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business and conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

According to an indictment filed on Feb. 27 in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Bešciokov, Aleksandr Mira Serda and others operated Garantex to “launder the proceeds of criminal activity, including ransomware, computer hacking, narcotics transactions, and sanctions violations, and profited from the laundering” between 2019 to the present. Bešciokov is expected to be transferred to US custody in accordance with India’s Extradition Act of 1962.

The alleged Garantex founder’s arrest followed Tether’s freezing of $27 million worth of USDt (USDT) on the platform. The crypto exchange announced on March 6 that it had temporarily suspended all services, including withdrawals. US authorities also seized three website domain names “used to support Garantex’s operations” as part of a judge’s order in the criminal case.

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The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control added Garantex to its list of sanctioned entities in April 2022 for “willfully disregard[ing] Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) obligations and allow[ing] their systems to be abused by illicit actors.” The European Union also imposed sanctions against the platform in February as part of sanctions on “Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.”

Serda, a Russian national and Garantex’s co-founder and chief commercial officer, was seemingly still at large at the time of Bešciokov’s arrest. 

A Garantex spokesperson declined to comment.

Delays returning to the United States?

It’s unclear what legal recourse Bešciokov could have in fighting US extradition from India should he choose to do so. Lawyers for Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon, who was arrested in Montenegro in March 2023 on unrelated charges, repeatedly appealed court decisions regarding US extradition before he was finally handed over to officials in December 2024. 

Former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who was in the Bahamas when crypto exchange FTX collapsed in November 2022, was extradited from the island nation to the US to face charges. He was later convicted of seven felony counts and sentenced to 25 years in prison but filed an appeal. 

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The recent GENIUS stablecoin bill is merely a thinly veiled attempt to usher in central bank digital currency (CBDC) controls through privatized means, according to Jean Rausis, co-founder of the Smardex decentralized trading platform.

In a statement shared with Cointelegraph, Rausis said that the US government will punish stablecoin issuers that do not comply with the new regulatory framework, similar to the European Union Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulations. The executive added:

“The government realizes that if they control stablecoins, they control financial transactions. Working with centralized stablecoin issuers means they can freeze funds anytime they want — essentially what a CBDC would allow. So, why bother creating a CBDC?”

“With stablecoins under the government’s control, the result is the same, with the false veneer of decentralization added as a bonus,” the executive continued.

Decentralized alternatives to centralized stablecoins, such as algorithmic stablecoins and synthetic dollars, will prove to be a valuable bulwark against this creeping government control over crypto, Rausis concluded.

Related: America must back pro-stablecoin laws, reject CBDCs — US Rep. Emmer

Revamped GENIUS bill to include stricter provisions

The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, introduced by Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty on Feb. 4, proposed a comprehensive framework for overcollateralized stablecoins such as Tether’s USDt (USDT) and Circle’s USDC (USDC).

The bill was revamped to include stricter Anti-Money Laundering, reserve requirements, liquidity provisions and sanctions checks on March 13.

These additional provisions will presumably give US-based stablecoin issuers an edge over their offshore counterparts.

During the recent White House Crypto Summit, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US would use stablecoins to ensure US dollar hegemony in payments and protect its role as the global reserve currency.

Centralized stablecoin issuers rely on US bank deposits and short-term cash equivalents such as US Treasury bills to back their digital fiat tokens, which drives up demand for the US dollar and US debt instruments.

Stablecoin issuers collectively hold over $120 billion in US debt — making them the 18th-largest buyer of US government debt in the world.

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