NFT Renaissance Arrives, But Solana Co-Founder Throws Cold Water?
TechFlow Selected TechFlow Selected
NFT Renaissance Arrives, But Solana Co-Founder Throws Cold Water?
No wonder few of the "trash" projects that Toly has hyped have ever taken off.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Bright, Foresight News
NFTs appear to be following ETH's return to $4,000, with veteran blue-chip NFTs thawing and recovering from an 18-month ice age.
CryptoPunks NFTs recorded over $24.6 million in trading volume last week, the highest since March 2024, marking a 416% increase from the previous week.
On the evening of July 24, Nasdaq-listed GameSquare announced its board had approved the strategic acquisition of CryptoPunk #5577 from Robert Leshner, founder of DeFi protocol Compound and CEO of Superstate. Under the agreement, GameSquare issued $5.15 million worth of preferred shares to Robert Leshner, convertible into approximately 3.4 million GameSquare common shares at $1.50 per share.
This move sparked a surge in CryptoPunks trading activity, significantly lifting both floor prices and average sale prices. As public companies become major holders in the crypto space, NFTs may now also be "saved" through corporate entities.
Previously, Arthur Hayes stated that as ETH rises, DeFi and NFTs will follow, predicting that holding CryptoPunks this cycle would outperform holding ETH.
Other ETH-based blue-chip NFTs also saw broad gains over the past week. Moonbirds' floor price surpassed 2 ETH, rising nearly 50%; Milady Maker's floor price exceeded 3 ETH, up over 20%.
Yet the NFT momentum has just begun. Last Sunday, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko and Base founder Jesse Pollak engaged in a heated Twitter debate over whether creator tokens on Zora are comparable to anonymous memecoins on Pump.fun.
Jesse Pollak argued that content and creators behind Zora's creator tokens hold unique value, calling it a logical fallacy to equate them with Pump.fun tokens. Anatoly Yakovenko countered that these tokens are merely viral products, bought only for quick resale. Pollak retorted that such tokens represent powerful technology enabling creator value flow, and those who disagree may stick to their belief that "content has no value."
In the debate, Anatoly Yakovenko bluntly concluded—“Memecoins and NFTs are digital garbage with no intrinsic value,” comparing such digital assets to loot box mechanics in free-to-play games.
Although Solana greatly benefited from memecoin-driven activity between 2024 and Q1 2025, toly himself has repeatedly stated publicly that memecoins lack intrinsic value.
Yet toly has undeniably played the role of a memecoin shilling KOL, gaining fame in the community for his “obsessive promotion of Solana memes.” By the later stages of the Solana memecoin boom, toly’s credibility as a Solana co-founder endorsing projects had completely eroded.
Looking back two years, from its creation in December 2023 to the Chinese Lunar New Year in 2024, Silly Dragon became the top viral meme on Solana. This meme originated simply because toly liked the dragon character and appeared publicly dressed as it during events.
Shortly after Silly Dragon was created, when it had only 1,454 followers, toly already followed the account. This act alone caused Silly Dragon to briefly surge tenfold within one to two hours.
Thereafter, as the Silly Dragon community grew, toly became increasingly addicted to promoting it—not only subtly including dragon emojis in tweets but directly sharing related meme project posts.
Reflecting on Solana’s rise from obscurity to third-largest blockchain by market cap, its early success stemmed from having the lowest transaction costs, making it the preferred chain for most new NFTs and protocols. NFTs and memes, as the most prominent markers of native crypto communities, objectively helped Solana build one of the strongest communities in the entire crypto space. toly distancing himself from NFTs and memes while morally condemning speculative assets undoubtedly leaves the community feeling like he is “kicking the chef after the meal.”
Join TechFlow official community to stay tuned
Telegram:https://t.me/TechFlowDaily
X (Twitter):https://x.com/TechFlowPost
X (Twitter) EN:https://x.com/BlockFlow_News
Foresight News
