Fantom Cofounder Mulls Idea for 'Safer' Meme Coins

Fantom Foundation co-founder Andre Cronje on Tuesday proposed a plan to fairly and safely issue meme coins on the network, aiming to sidestep risks associated with buying non-serious tokens.

Issuing and trading meme coins has become a fun and multibillion-dollar sector among crypto investors in the past year. An ongoing meme coin frenzy on Solana and Base networks has netted millions in profits for platform owners and users, but it comes with risks for the community and investors.

Some risks include teams dumping tokens after creating social media hype, early investors selling large amounts, removal of liquidity, and developers having access to change code for tokens, Cronje said.

The proposed plan is to issue tokens with the Fantom Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to Fantom blockchain's development and maintenance, as one of the signers controlling the token’s liquidity pools.

“Up to 5% of the tokens to support the meme team expenses. This will be locked in a multisig requiring signatures from 2 project members and at least 1 foundation member,” Cronje said.

“The remaining 85% of the tokens will be put up in a FTM/token LP in foundation multisig. An amount of 100,000 FTM will be provided. Any Fantom-based exchange can be nominated for LP,” he added. LP refers to liquidity pool, a smart contract on an exchange that holds two or more tokens and facilitates trading.

Up to 10% of tokens can be allocated for marketing-related expenses, such as exchange listings, and will be locked in a multisig requiring signatures from two project members and at least one Foundation member.

“Should the FTM in the LP token reach at least 2,000,000 FTM, the original provided 100,000 FTM (5%) will be removed to cover the initial cost and the rest of the LP will be burned,” Cronje added.

Fantom’s Cronje is the latest in a line of blockchain teams that aren’t shying away from engaging with meme coins directly – marking a clear departure from previous cycles in which such tokens were treated as mere tradeable assets.

Avalanche Foundation, a similar body for the Avalanche network, earlier this year announced a fund that invested directly in and supported the growth of meme coins (which it termed culture coins). In March, it invested in five tokens.

Last week, BNB Chain developers unveiled a $1 million prize pool that attracted submissions from developers behind meme coins. The pool aimed to award projects it deemed unique for investing in their future growth.