Cardano’s Charles Hoskinson Slams Solana: “It’s a Memecoin Ecosystem Built to Dump”

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has criticized the rapid rise of memecoins on the Solana blockchain, describing the ecosystem as the one that is “built to dump” by insiders seeking quick profits.

99% of Solana Memecoins Will Fail — Charles Hoskinson

In an interview with market analyst Scott Melker, Hoskinson warned that most memecoins offer no real value and are destined to collapse.

“A memecoin is just like the ascendancy of a celebrity that has 15 minutes of fame,” he said, adding:

“They have to become sustainable quickly or otherwise people stop paying attention and they die out.”

According to Hoskinson, 99% of memecoins will fail unless they evolve into utility-driven projects. He argued that their typical structure incentivizes early insiders to pump and dump, exposing the broader market.

Hoskinson further placed memecoin speculation in a broader pattern of crypto hype, following ICOs and NFTs. He argued that memecoins do not introduce fresh capital into the system but rather recycle it, often enriching creators at the expense of users.

“You’re moving water from one side of the bathtub to the other… the drain is open — it goes into the founder’s pocket,” he said.

While not dismissing memecoins entirely, he emphasized that long-term value will come from areas like Bitcoin DeFi, real-world asset tokenization, and algorithmic stablecoins—not viral tokens with no roadmap.

Top Solana Memecoins Valuation Has Crashed Over 85% in 2025

Hoskinson’s comments appear as top Solana memecoin continues underperforming so far in 2025.

For instance, the combined price performance of top five Solana memecoin, namely Official Trump (TRUMP), Bonk (BONK), Fartcoin (FARTCOIN), Dogwifhat (WIF) and Pengu (PENGU), has dropped by over 85% from its year-to-date high of $81.83 billion.

Meanwhile, the daily count of memecoins deployed across the Solana blockchain, via its official memecoin launchpad platform Pump.Fun, has dropped substantially since peaking on Jan. 23, 2025, at 71,738.

As of April 1, the count was around 9,000.

Risk aversion sentiment led by US President Donald Trump’s tariff war is the primary catalysts behind the memecoin sector crash.