Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin labels political meme coins as perfect bribery vehicle

Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin released a critical view on political meme coins and their impact on investors, stating that they represent an effective bribery vehicle. Buterin argued that these tokens are becoming increasingly dangerous to democracy and only cause short-term excitement.

Political meme coins come under fire via Vitalik Buterin's post

Vitalik Buterin shared his concerns about the rise of political meme coins, suggesting that they are a risk to democracy.

In a series of comments on X on Thursday, Buterin characterized political coins as "a perfect bribery vehicle," warning of their potential to distort political processes.

Buterin also highlighted the possibility of political meme coins to enable financial manipulations.

"If a politician issues a coin, you do not even need to send them any coins to give them money. Instead, you just buy and hold the coin, and this increases the value of their holdings passively," Buterin explained.

He argued that this mechanism allows for subtle yet effective financial influence, bypassing traditional oversight and accountability forms.

According to Buterin, investing in this class of tokens becomes a mix of donating to the issuer and engaging in a gamble.

He also asserts that the notion "anyone can create tokens for anything, at any scale," has led to a proliferation of projects with little consideration for their ethical or societal implications.

He urged the crypto community to differentiate between short-term, speculative excitement and sustainable, meaningful innovation.

Buterin ended his argument by requesting that politicians be careful of the route of political meme tokens.

A major source of Buterin's argument was Donald Trump's recently launched TRUMP token, which quickly attracted billions of dollars.

The token was launched over the past weekend and amassed a market cap of $14 billion following a 2000% surge. Its price also shot up to a high of $72 on Sunday before dropping to $31 on Friday.

Following Trump's meme coin success, his wife, Melania Trump, launched her token, MELANIA, which caused a massive attention shift from the TRUMP token.

The political meme coins invited criticism from various individuals, including Senator Elizabeth Warren. 

Senator Warren and Congressman Jake Auchincloss moved for the investigation of the TRUMP token in a letter sent to federal agency heads.

The letter included that the TRUMP and MELANIA tokens serve as a threat to national security. It implied that Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump added massively to their net worth through the meme coins.

"Nearly overnight, President Trump and his wife's net worth skyrocketed to $58 billion," the letter stated.

Additionally, the letter alleged that Trump and associates own 80% of TRUMP and could dump it on investors at any time, leading to a wide range of losses.