Crypto Community Pushes Ethereum Founder To The Brink

The founder of Ethereum has sent out a warning via Twitter, saying he believes cryptocurrency is heading in the wrong direction.

Vitalik Buterin, 23, complained on Twitter about the immaturity of communities across the cryptocurrency market, saying they need to understand the difference between enacting positive change for society and simply moving money around.

“*All* crypto communities, including Ethereum, should heed these words of warning,” he wrote. “Need to differentiate between getting hundreds of billions of dollars in digital paper wealth sloshing around and actually achieving something meaningful for society.”

Buterin went on to explain that many in the community are wasting energy creating memes about luxury cars and inappropriate jokes, and threatened to abandon the space if things don’t improve.

Ethereum’s value has increased more than 8,500 percent since the start of the year, paving the way for hundreds of initial coin offerings (ICOs). FinTech analytics firm Autonomous NEXT estimates that over $4 billion has been raised via ICOs. Overall, the market for digital coins has increased from just under $18 billion at the beginning of the year to an astounding $560 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.com.

However, Buterin has called into question whether these types of wins are rooted in reality. After the crypto market surpassed $500 billion for the first time, he tweeted: “So total cryptocoin market cap just hit 0.5T today. But have we *earned* it?”