The godfather of Ethereum himself just weighed in on Argentina's meme coin disaster.

Vitalik is sort of telling the entire industry, "I told you so," about meme coins while still showing Argentina some serious love.

Turns out you can hate the game but still respect the players.

The LIBRA Carnage

For those who might have been living under a rock this past week, LIBRA was endorsed (or shared, depending on your legal definition) by Argentinian president Javier Milei… 

It then dropped by 95% in a matter of hours, leaving a total of 86% absolutely rekt to the tune of $251M.

Meanwhile, 2,101 galaxy brain wallets somehow walked away with $180M in gains… totally normal and not suspicious at all. 

Some degens are still holding $11M in unrealized losses like it's their last BAYC – maybe they think it’s a good tax deduction? 

Vitalik Keeps It Real

Enter Vitalik, who has been warning us about meme coins since March 2024.

He says they're about as useful as trying to explain gas fees to your grandma – but with all the dangers of a call center scam.

He wants to turn these "financialized games" into something actually useful - like funding public goods rather than enriching insider wallets. 

Before you pick up your pitchforks, Vitalike is probably just tired of watching people lose their life savings on ElonCumRocket69 (we checked; it’s real.) 

The Argentina Plot Twist

And it’s not like Vitalik is being fully negative here – he’s still mega-bullish on Argentina.

He says their devs are more productive and innovative than on average, which is high praise from the main voice of Ethereum.

It’s not just talking, either – he’s suggesting Devconnect should happen there (bold move after the whole LIBRA thing).

Apparently, he’s more bullish on Argentina harder than Michael Saylor on Bitcoin.

The country's Ethereum community is building harder than ever.

Milei's Response

Argentina's president, who has completely stopped shilling meme coins (yeah, good idea there) responded – he's apparently now all about legitimate crypto development.

What a twist – he went from pumping LIBRA to simping for Ethereum faster than most investors lost their live savings in the very token he pumped. 

He called hosting Devconnect "an honor," like he didn't just watch his citizens get rekt.

Vitalik is simply saying that education bets speculation, saying that fewer pumps and dumps and more actual innovation would do the industry well.

And honestly, Argentina still has plenty of talent - it’s not like one bad move by the president would sour the entire industry’s opinion of a nation.

Turning A New Leaf?

The crypto space needs more builders and fewer gamblers.

Even after getting rekt, Argentina is still in the game for the right reasons – we could still see something beautiful come out of this dumpster fire, as all eyes are on the South American country.

And if nothing else, at least Argentina learned that presidents probably shouldn't shill tokens.