Meme Coins & ICOs: Born from Market Flaws?

Kain Warwick, the Australian founder of Synthetix and Infinex, said the current meme coin frenzy reminds him of the initial coin offering (ICO) craze of 2017-2018.

Kain Warwick, founder of Synthetix and Infinex, has likened the present meme coin mania to the initial coin offering (ICO) frenzy of 2017-2018. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the crypto entrepreneur highlighted the similarities between the two phenomena in an attempt to pique investors' attention regarding the state of the market.

This feels like ICOs again. What is absolutely clear from every conversation rn is that something needs to change. I’m a fan of markets and I think we can shift the incentives, people are now realising there are negative reputational externalities.

Warwick pointed out that both trends, meme tokens and ICOs, emerged due to structural inefficiencies within the industry — ICOs thrived because of the high barriers to traditional fundraising, while meme coins have risen as a counter to venture capital (VC) manipulation in crypto funding rounds throughout 2021.

According to Warwick, the problem lies not with the meme coins themselves but rather in the lack of control over how they are launched, leading to a space dominated by bad actors. He noted that ICOs were eventually shut down by regulators, preventing further damage but also stifling innovation. However, meme coins are unlikely to face the same regulatory crackdown, presenting a unique opportunity for self-regulation within the ecosystem.

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One of Warwick’s primary concerns is the co-opting of essential crypto infrastructure by bad actors, which he described as a recurring pattern in crypto history:

According to him, paid influencers played a significant role in promoting scam projects during the ICO era. Now, a similar tactic is emerging with meme coins, where high-follower accounts are being compensated to advertise contract addresses (CAs), essentially operating modern-day pump-and-dump schemes.

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Warwick ultimately advocates for self-regulation as the only viable path forward. He suggested that the crypto community — particularly within the Solana ecosystem, where meme coins are highly prevalent — must differentiate between genuine innovation and exploitative schemes.

I think Kaito could be a vector here. If a good platform can capture all the yappers and meme itself into existence as the venue to use instead of getting rugged repeatedly that is one possible way of capturing market awareness.

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He proposed the creation of a platform capable of monitoring market awareness and providing a structured environment for fairer launches. Among the potential candidates, he mentioned Kaito, although he acknowledged the challenge of persuading influential figures to adopt more ethical practices.

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