Dave Portnoy Claims Meme Coins Are Just ‘Gambling’ and Unsustainable

“I don’t believe it’s going to last,” Dave Portnoy remarked, discussing the trend of meme coins—a segment of cryptocurrency he often promotes via social media.

At Consensus 2025, while speaking with Tom Farley, the head of the crypto exchange Bullish, the founder of Barstool Sports opened up about his brief, turbulent experience in the meme coin arena. With his typical bluntness, Portnoy recounted a journey filled with quick profits, legal challenges, and public scrutiny that could deter even the toughest online provocateur.

“I enjoy the thrill; I’m a gambler at heart,” he confessed. “But the rational side of me questions, is it really worth the backlash?” This conversation was part of a larger discourse on the speculative and hype-driven culture surrounding cryptocurrency, where meme coins—tokens more often created as jokes than for real utility—have caught the interest of young, adventurous traders. Portnoy, having transformed Barstool into a media powerhouse fueled by viral trends and sports betting, found himself caught in this same digital craze.

It began with SafeMoon, one of the first viral tokens emerging from the crypto boom during the COVID-19 pandemic. After seeing social media buzz about traders netting “9,000,000,000%” gains, he invested and made a video poking fun at its apparent lack of substance—only to find himself facing a lawsuit.

“They claimed SafeMoon compensated me to advertise them. Not true. I had to spend $20,000 to extricate myself from that legal mess,” he shared.

However, this setback didn’t discourage him. Fueled by the prospect of launching his own Barstool coin without the hassle of an IPO, Portnoy began delving into the mechanics of creating meme coins. This led him to a developer who pitched a token named Libra, supposedly supported by Argentina’s president.

Portnoy invested $4.5 million.

“I was at SNL with Lady Gaga, just typing away. I thought, what is going on?” he recalled. The developer had promised that Elon Musk would tweet about it, but the Argentine president denied any association. “I lost all my money.”

Portnoy considers himself fortunate—the developer eventually reimbursed him completely, although he remains unsure why. “I was one of the fortunate ones, but I’m definitely not handing that money back.”

Despite his financial losses, Portnoy continued to explore this domain. He introduced coins called Greed and Greed 2, leaning into the humor of the situation. Another token, JailStool, arose from public indignation over his meme coin ventures. While another creator initiated it, Portnoy embraced the concept and promoted it, claiming that at one point, a $1,000 investment surged to $7 million in less than an hour.

“It took me 13 years to earn that kind of money at Barstool,” he noted.

However, volatility is the norm in this arena. Portnoy admits he has lost count of how many times he’s been accused of undertaking “rug pulls,” a term describing when insiders abandon a coin, leaving late investors holding worthless tokens.

He described the meme coin market as a rigged system, largely controlled by a group of early investors utilizing trading bots and algorithms that know when to sell. “The same people are always winning, while the same group keeps losing.”

This realization seems to have shifted his perspective. While he jokingly hinted at a potential Greed 3 launch, he acknowledged that dealing with real-life backlash is more challenging. A man once confronted him in a Las Vegas casino, claiming he had lost $200,000. “It’s entertaining online, yet it highlights that real people are losing significant amounts, even if they should be accountable for their decisions.”

In his view, despite the potential for profit and humor, the meme coin landscape is ultimately unsustainable.

“I understand the appeal,” he expressed. “It’s essentially gambling; it resembles a Ponzi scheme, but I don’t say that negatively.”

Portnoy doesn’t pretend to have all the solutions. However, if his observations are indicative of the future of meme coin enthusiasm, the outlook appears bleak. “I can’t envision it lasting. It might persist for a few more years, but what comes next? I truly don’t know.”