“Most are scams”: Is the Dogefather turning bearish?
After calling the founder of OpenAI and Worldcoin “Scam Altman” on X, Elon Musk is not mincing his words about cryptocurrencies. During his testimony in the civil lawsuit against OpenAI, the Tesla CEO was questioned about an ICO (Initial Coin Offering) project considered by the AI company in 2018. His response to the jury was unequivocal: while “some projects have merit,” the vast majority of tokens are nothing but scams. This is surprisingly brutal rhetoric from the man who propelled Dogecoin (DOGE) to its ATH during the last bull run.
This stance marks a sharp break from his image as a staunch defender of the ecosystem. As the market tries to sustain its bullish rally, this unexpected statement acts as pure FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt). Obviously, Elon Musk is not targeting Bitcoin, since Tesla still holds a significant portion of its BTC. But is it game over for altcoins?
A mysterious double game: X rolls out its trading terminal
Yet, behind this frontal attack, Elon Musk’s strategy remains particularly mysterious. On the very day of this explosive courtroom statement, the social network X (formerly Twitter) officially deployed the web version of its Cashtags. This new feature transforms the platform into a fully fledged trading terminal, integrating live charts for cryptocurrencies and stocks.
Why heavily criticize the industry while building the ideal infrastructure to capture the market’s next breakout? Furthermore, Tesla has not liquidated its bag: the company still carefully holds its 11,509 BTC, valued at nearly $800 million. Ultimately, we need to know which projects “that have merit” he is actually talking about.
“Most are scams”: Which altcoins will survive?
According to the sharp analysis of Justin Bons, founder of Cyber Capital and a crypto researcher since 2013, the vast majority of altcoins and blockchains are not just immature projects, but actual structural “scams”. In his viral threads on X, Bons ruthlessly dismantles their skewed tokenomics. Indeed, founders and VCs often control over 80% of the staked supply (as seen on Sui, where 84% of staked tokens are in the hands of insiders with no legal lockup), validators remain permissioned via centralized lists (XRP with its Unique Node List, Hedera, Algorand, or Canton), and off chain governance leaves power to a handful of actors.
In short, these projects promise decentralization and massive utility without ever delivering: they run on disguised Proof of Authority, massive unlocks that pave the way for dumps, and scalability sacrificed for the sake of marketing. This leaves us with an ecosystem where the cypherpunk dream is betrayed for quick profits, turning most tokens into pump and dump tools rather than revolutionary financial infrastructure.
However, a few “gems” have a real chance of surviving Musk’s FUD. These are the scalable and truly decentralized L1s that Bons highlights: those that have solved the blockchain trilemma through sharding (NEAR, TON, EGLD, XTZ), effective on chain governance, a high number of permissionless validators (>150), and fair tokenomics.
For its part, Solana, despite past criticisms, continues its journey toward greater decentralization. As for Ethereum, the blockchain maintains a solid foundation despite its own governance limitations; pure DeFi protocols like Morpho, with their isolated markets and third party curators, embody real utility without centralized control. These rare projects combine concrete adoption (RWAs, institutional trading, payments), censorship resistance, and uncompromised scalability.
So, in the face of Musk’s statements, these projects will not collapse: they represent the minority that keeps its promises and that, in the long run, will capture the true value of the crypto revolution. The rest? A Darwinian correction is almost inevitable.
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