Did memecoins stress-test crypto’s infrastructure?

Empire co-host Santiago Santos makes the case that memecoins have actually helped push infra forward…just not in the way you think

article-image

vittryp/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

This is a segment from the Empire newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.


“Memecoins are stress-testing infra,” Empire co-host Santiago Santos said on the Empire roundup this morning. 

Santos compared it to the porn industry stress-testing the internet. Good times. 

“ I get really excited about the fact that we’ve come such a long way in building infrastructure … [and you] see a line of sight into actually becoming the future of finance, like tokenizing stocks,” he continued. 

The point Santos makes is a personal favorite of mine, as I’m sure you’re aware. 

We’re seeing a lot of developments happening, and I’m speaking to a new founder almost every day about their projects and raises. It’s hard not to — even as an objective bystander — respect the amount of work that’s gone into getting crypto to this point. 

It’s also just so inherently “crypto” for the space to use memecoins as a stress test. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they seem to have a use case after all (but don’t tell the SEC).

With the Digital Asset Summit next week, my assumption is that we’ll see more bullishness, given that DAS is offering something that a conference like ETH Denver couldn’t: a look behind the scenes of what the institutions are up to. And we know that’s going to play a big part this cycle.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research

article-image

The fate of Coinbase has been intertwined with Bitcoin long before the company went public in 2021

article-image

Forward Guidance’s Felix Jauvin noted that he’s bullish on both crypto and bitcoin on a “mean reversion basis”

article-image

This is the largest equity investment that Framework Ventures has ever made,” Framework’s Michael Anderson exclusively told Blockworks

article-image

The stickiness could be the result of bear market conditions where users are swapping out of riskier tokens to hold stablecoins on Solana apps instead, a Blockworks Research analyst said

article-image

The dollar index is down 3.7% today from Wednesday, and consumer sentiment fell to lower than expected

article-image

Ethereum core developers finalize Pectra’s May 7 launch and wrap scoping of the next upgrade