Aisha in Lagos believed. For years, she’d held that little phone — its screen now just dimly lighting up her corrugated iron roof — close to her heart. A neighbor, crowing about 10x returns on some coin she couldn’t pronounce, had done the trick. Aisha cobbled together her savings – savings that were supposed to pay for her daughter’s school fees – and purchased Milady. She imagined retreating from the hustle and bustle, of a life where she would no longer need to barter for each naira. Now? Only retrospective data shows the price chart readout resembles a heart monitor flatlining. Aisha’s story is not an exception—it’s a bitter truth reflected throughout many developing countries, where meme coin mania has spread like wildfire.

Meme Coins: Mirage of Financial Freedom?

We celebrate financial freedom, and rightly so. Is Milady really a vehicle for liberation? Or is it more of a gilded cage, tempting us with a mirage of benefits? The problem isn't the idea of decentralized finance; it's the execution through assets devoid of intrinsic value, fueled solely by hype and speculation. In developed economies, a bad investment is just a bitter disappointment. In developing economies, it can be catastrophic.

Consider the stark contrast. When a failed tech startup in Silicon Valley fails, that just means a handful of wealthy venture capitalists get to write off their losses. One such investment in a meme coin went south in Nigeria. It might mean that a family goes hungry, or a child has to drop out of school. The gap between the developed countries and the developing countries is huge.

Since meme coins are highly speculative and have volatile price movements, as they are fueled by passing internet fads, this renders them particularly dangerous for those who stand to lose the most. The article explains how a small team token allocation and a community-first approach act as trust signals. Well, even if true, this still doesn’t alter the underlying reality: Milady’s worth is based on vibes rather than provable fundamentals. Vibes can change on a dime.

Capital Flight or Community Building?

The argument often made is that meme coins are harmless fun, a way for communities to connect and participate in the crypto revolution. Let's be honest: how much actual "community building" is happening beyond speculative trading and shilling on social media?

More pressingly, though, let’s think about where that capital should be going. Aisha would have been better off putting her money into a local business or micro-loan rather than pursuing the meme coin fantasy. She might have even saved it in a less inflationary and more stable asset. The promise of easy wealth shortchanges investment in more fruitful endeavors that would generate real sustainable economic growth. It is a major drain on developing economies’ coffers.

Nkrumah spoke of balancing freedom and needs. But it’s not just about having the freedom to invest in what you want. Shielding our most vulnerable populations from abusive financial schemes is the bare minimum we should do.

Crypto's Reputation at Stake?

Milady, like most of these other meme coins, is an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain. While the article positions the coin as a legitimate ERC-20 token tied to the Milady Maker NFT brand, it's hard to ignore the elephant in the room: meme coins contribute to a perception of crypto as a Wild West of scams and pump-and-dump schemes.

This perception prevents industries from moving forward with serious blockchain technology initiatives that are truly more productive, cost-effective and beneficial. Consider our farmer in Kenya who is wary of adopting blockchain-based supply chain tracking. They’re concerned about the dangers, influenced by horror stories that have people losing their life savings on meme coins.

The long-term price Milady’s price predictions, from $0.033 to $0.28 by 2030, only underscore the inherent uncertainty. This isn't investment; it's gambling. And even for those that do win, the vast majority will end up losing. Meme coin trading is the definition of a zero-sum game. As we’ve seen in crypto, whenever one trader is $10,000 richer from their 10x trade, scores of others are left holding the bag. This exacerbates existing inequalities.

It’s time for the broader crypto community to understand the real risks posed by wild, uncontrolled, unregulated meme coin expansion. It’s not just an annoying trend — it is a very real threat to the industry’s legitimacy and long-term sustainability.

So, will Milady vanish into thin air in 2025? Maybe. Maybe not. Making cryptocurrency price predictions for any given meme coin is akin to predicting which new meme will go viral next week. The question at hand is bigger than Milady’s survival. What matters most is whether we, as investors and as a community, will be willing to invest responsibly and will take responsibility for the unintended consequences of our investments. Just don’t let the siren song of easy money start pulling you into stupid bets. Keep an eye on the dangers posed in reality, particularly to those who cannot pay them. Now is the time to move beyond short-term trends and gimmicks and focus on what’s really needed.