Despite being optimistic about the long-term future of cryptocurrencies, Uphold CEO Simon McLoughlin expressed deep concerns about the recent explosion of memecoins, describing it as a “disturbing trend” that is undermining the value of the overall cryptocurrency market.

In a recent interview, McLoughlin said he was frustrated with the “fraudulent nature” of certain segments of the crypto industry, specifically pointing to the rapid proliferation of memecoins. “It’s disheartening to see that we’re at a point now where we’re generating 7,000 new memecoins every day,” he said. He warned that this surge in AI-driven memecoin generation is “devaluing and dragging down the value of the entire segment.”

The rise of memecoins has been fueled by platforms like Pump.fun, which has facilitated the creation of over 1 million memecoins since its launch in January. Operating on the Solana blockchain due to its low costs, the platform has generated a cumulative revenue of $100 million. An average of over 4,500 new memecoins are created per day through Pump.fun.

Despite his concerns, McLoughlin acknowledged that Uphold offers its clients a way to invest in the memecoin trend. Through the Uphold app, users can invest in “a selection of popular memecoins” through the platform’s memecoin basket, which includes well-known tokens like DOGE, FLOKI, PEPE and BONK.

*This is not investment advice.