- MEME token has hit $2,200 on Uniswap, five weeks after being given away as a free airdrop
- The MEME Protocol platform is an “experiment in NFT farming” and is the latest yield farming nonsense
- The creators of the platform freely admit that the code has not been approved by anyone
Move over Uniswap, there’s a new airdrop in town. That is, there’s an old airdrop that is suddenly worth a fortune. Meme Protocol, a self-proclaimed “experiment in NFT farming”, handed out 355 MEME tokens each to supporters last month as part of its launch. The airdrop, which hit Uniswap on August 15, has enjoyed an incredible runup in the past week, shooting from a valuation of $105 to an incredible $2,200 per token yesterday. That means that the 72 supporters who claimed their 355 MEME tokens were temporarily sitting on an airdrop worth $710,000 – on paper at least.
Meme Protocol – Where Yield Farming Meets NFTs
Meme Protocol is the latest creation in the yield farming space that has seen risk takers win big and lose big in the past few weeks on a conveyor belt of identical projects. On this occasion however, rather than being a blatant rip off of an existing project, Meme Protocol is actually trying to do something new.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have never really taken off in the crypto space, at least not since Cryptokitties screwed up the Ethereum network in 2017 (sound familiar?). NFTs have the potential to be one of the most exciting things to come out of the blockchain revolution, but the regulations around trading securities and the lack of exchanges willing to facilitate such trades means that they have not yet penetrated the crypto crowd.
Meme Protocol however is attempting to combine NFTs with yield farming, allowing users to stake assets to earn “limited edition NFT memes from some of the top artists in Ethereum”. This may sound like a genuinely exciting concept that could go far, but don’t be fooled – the Meme Protocol website is called www.donybuymeme.com, and they have a very specific warning on their Medium announcement page regarding the safety of the protocol:
“The creators of Meme have made reasonable efforts to ensure the security of the contracts. Our contracts pull from existing well-audited projects and have solicited reviews from others. Given meaningful traction, a professional audit is sure to come. However, at this time, please use caution.”
Tl;dr – they don’t care.
Buyers Not Bothered by Flaws
Despite this risk, or perhaps because of it, the Meme Protocol platform and the MEME token itself has attracted huge interest, with its price rising in line with exposure. There is no suggestion that any of the 72 Meme Protocol token holders still has their entire holding, and we would not be encouraging them to hold on much longer if they do, but those who have managed to keep it into the thousands deserve the money for having hands that strong.
It cannot be escaped however that a free token for a platform that its founders admit has not been checked and is liable to die at any time has managed to be ‘worth’ $2,200. This alone shows what kind of state the yield farming world is in right now.
