Attorney John Deaton recently shared his thoughts on starting the Trump meme. The crypto community is divided and some people believe that Trump’s meme coin will attract new investors and help crypto gain more acceptance. Others, like Deaton, worry it could damage the industry’s credibility.
For Deaton, the problem lies not with the meme coins themselves, but their broader implications for the crypto industry’s reputation. On the Good Morning Crypto Show, he warned that while meme coins can attract attention and investors, they can also contribute to the public’s perception of crypto as a “casino” or speculative market, rather than as a legitimate technology with real-world utility. Deaton’s concern is that if meme coins dominate the conversation, it could overshadow the more serious and transformative potential of blockchain technology.
“I think we’ve been fighting for the survival of crypto for five years, but now we have to fight for legitimacy,” he said. Deaton fears that if the industry doesn’t push for real utility and focus on solving global problems, it risks becoming mired in hype and speculation.
Looking to the future
“We must not only survive, but serve,” he said, emphasizing the importance of promoting blockchain technology that can truly solve global problems. If meme coins like Trump continue to dominate, the public perception of crypto could shift toward seeing it as a speculative bet. He believes the new direction could allow for a more balanced approach to crypto regulation, one that does not unfairly target legitimate projects like Ripple, Coinbase and others.
“We have seen a war on crypto. But what worries me is that in this country we sometimes tend to go from one extreme to the other. So we’ve been waging this totally unfair war on crypto and that doesn’t mean we want total freedom for everyone where there are no rules, no regulations,” Deaton said.