Dave Portnoy recently joined CoinDesk to talk about his views, and the Barstool Sports founder called memecoins “legalized Ponzi schemes” and warned that the only way to win is to “get in and get out before it crashes.”
‘An Interesting, Crazy Market’
Portnoy, who will speak at Consensus 2025 in Toronto this May, said he sees little real value in most memecoins.
“There’s no value to it, so you gotta get in and get out before it crashes,” he said.
While Dogecoin and maybe a few others are different, Portnoy believes most meme coins follow the same pump-and-dump cycle.
“The true meme coins that people are doing on pump fund, like it’s the same general cycle every single time.”
He added that he doesn’t know what makes some memecoins take off: “I don’t have the secret sauce on what makes one go up. I know what makes mine go up. I tweet it. If I tweet it, they go bananas.”
YouTuber Stephen Findeisen, known as Coffeezilla, echoed Portnoy’s view, saying he appreciated Portnoy’s honesty.
“He just tells you what he thinks,” Coffeezilla said.
According to him, people keep pretending meme coins are collectibles.”This guy’s like (Portnoy), ‘Hey, they’re Ponzi schemes. I tweet about it, number go up.'”
He also pointed out that while Portnoy believes it’s fine as long as people know what they’re getting into, the reality is that many people still get burned because Ponzi schemes naturally result in more losers than winners.
From COVID to Crypto
Portnoy got into crypto during the COVID-19 pandemic when he also started trading stocks.
He sees a connection between gambling, stock trading, and crypto, calling the stock market “the world’s largest casino.”
“There’s the general element of people being willing to risk money to make more money,” he said. “If you’re looking at meme coins, that’s gambling. Plain, simple, nothing more to it.”
While some people say Portnoy was early to spot trends, he disagreed. “A lot of the haters out there will say I’m very late on crypto,” he said.
No Blockchain Strategy Yet
When asked if he would use crypto or blockchain if he launched Barstool today, Portnoy said he had no idea how he would do that.
He once thought about launching a Barstool meme coin but worried about fans losing money. He also shared a story about trying to accept Bitcoin donations for the Barstool Fund, a campaign that raised about $50 million to help small businesses during the pandemic.
Despite crypto fans encouraging him, they only received around $30,000 in Bitcoin.
“They talked big, big, big talk, but didn’t work out,” he said.
His Crypto Holdings
Portnoy owns Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and “as much of it as I can,” he said.
He was drawn to XRP partly because he knows Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and thought XRP would go up once legal issues cleared.
“I have a love-hate relationship with Bitcoin,” Portnoy admitted. “I’ve just been on the wrong side of every time it rips.”
Bigger Picture on Memecoins
Portnoy’s honesty came at a time when the broader crypto community is facing questions about memecoins, especially after news broke that Trump’s own memecoin offered top holders the chance to attend a private dinner with the president.
Some, like Coffeezilla, say this “perk” shows that meme coins are gaining unexpected forms of real-world utility, complicating how regulators like the SEC might view them moving forward.
In any case, Portnoy’s transparency about the nature of meme coins stood out.
“It’s an interesting, crazy market,” he said. “There’s no value to it, so you gotta get in and get out before it crashes.”