When it comes to celebrity meme coins, don’t expect to see Kevin O'Leary’s name come up anytime soon—either as an issuer or an investor.
“That is the definition of a shitcoin,” the Canadian entrepreneur and “Shark Tank” star told Decrypt in an interview. “Why would I put that into a portfolio?”
O'Leary said that nearly 20% of his investments are currently in crypto, split between assets like Bitcoin and companies like stablecoin issuer Circle. Still, the influential investor described celebrity meme coins as an emerging crypto trend that doesn’t fit into his framework.
“What value does that have for me long term?” O’Leary pondered of the category. “What do they really bring to the table that has any value other than celebrity?”
Andrew Tate, Iggy Azalea, and Lil Pump are among the myriad of celebrities that have touted their respective meme coins on social media this year. In the past month, a majority of those coins have cratered in value as enthusiasm for the space shows signs of cooling.
Of 30 celebrity meme coins launched recently, data compiled by Slorg, business expansion manager at Solana exchange Jupiter and self-described crypto strategist, show an average decline of 94% in value.
“Above all, I’m an investor”
In general, O’Leary said he likes to “eat his own cooking.” Between Bitcoin, gold, and recently sports trading cards, that means the investments O’Leary talks about are ones he buys himself.
“Above all, I'm an investor,” O’Leary said. “I like to think that, to the extent that people watch what I do, that I'm giving them valuable advice.”
Overall, meme coins should be viewed as a form of gambling or entertainment, O’Leary told Decrypt. The only one he owns is Dogecoin, he added, with a small sum of the dog-themed asset tucked away within a Robinhood account.
“It doesn't go into the investment portfolio,” O’Leary emphasized. “It's no different than going to Las Vegas and saying, ‘I'm going to take 500 bucks out tonight, I'm going to go to the tables, and after I lose it all, I'll consider that the cost of entertainment.’”
Along those lines, Solana’s Strip is booming of late, thanks to protocols such as pump.fun, which lets anyone launch a meme coin for dollars worth of crypto. It’s raked in $28 million dollars in fees over the past month, the most out of any Solana-based protocol, according to DefiLlama.
Even meme coin naysayers are finding ways to cash in. Last week, rebranded Solana protocol Save took aim at the recent flood of meme coins, saying that they’re “hurting the community” through rugs and cash grabs—and promptly announced the protocol dumpy.fun, where users can short meme coins launched using pump.fun.
For his part, O’Leary said he’s staying away from the celebrity meme coin space. And it doesn’t matter how many times people reach out with a pathway to pump.fun.
“I've been approached so many times by so many different groups for the ‘Mr. Wonderful’ token,” he said. “Would I buy my own coin and say this coin has financial merit because it's got ‘Mr. Wonderful’ on its name? I don't think so.”