The Pump ICO is a watershed moment in crypto, but not in a good way. The blessing, and curse, of memecoins is that they are “an asset class about nothing.” This was the breakthrough I had. after years of thinking about them (sigh), when I wrote my blog post relating them to Seinfeld. Being about nothing lets investors do whatever they want with them, unconstrained by questions of value or fundamentals or success. But being about nothing also allows scammers, grifters, pump and dumpers and sandwichers to run wild. If a coin has a purpose then extractors can only go so far. If it doesn’t they will eventually crowd everyone else out. Thus, a pump and dump operation that is certain bad for, and likely a crime, for almost any other asset is just “a fun week” for a memecoin. Similarly, the kind of market manipulation that is frowned upon elsewhere, including for Bitcoin, is celebrated in memes. So why am I writing about this today? Because the Pump ICO is an attempt to bestow legitimacy on an asset class that doesn’t want it. It’s like breaking the 4th wall, or violating the mafia’s rule of never talking about it being organized crime. I’m still not sure how it shakes out, but about the only mistake the writers of Seinfeld made was trying to impose meaning on a show that thrived on not having any in the final episode.