Former Goldman Sachs analyst and cryptocurrency hedge fund boss Murad Mahmudov has openly criticised Ripple-promoted XRP and Cardano’s ADA, labelling them as “cult meme coins” in a post on social media platform X, according to a report by ZyCrypto.
The report cites Mahmudov, who founded hedge fund Adaptive Capital which ceased operations after sustaining heavy losses during the 13 March 2020 crypto market crash, writing last Thursday: “This is the cycle when people are finally realising that XRP and ADA were nothing other than Cult Memecoins all along”.
Last week, Mahmudov advised investors interested in the burgeoning meme coin market to focus on projects with market valuations between $5m and $200m. He warned that any meme coin trading under a $10m market capitalisation for several weeks is likely a scam. Mahmudov also predicted that altcoins would outperform other crypto market sectors in the current cycle, although he does not foresee a major altcoin season due to declining US household savings.
XRP saw massive gains during the 2017 bull market, making Ripple founders among the wealthiest individuals globally. Despite being the eighth largest digital asset with a market cap of $23bn, XRP remains down 87.6% from its all-time high of $3.40 set in January 2018, despite partial regulatory clarity secured last July.
Similarly, Cardano’s ADA experienced significant price growth during the last bull cycle but has since lost 88.8% of its value from its peak of $3.09 in September 2021.
Mahmudov highlighted a divergence in market behaviour, noting: “Institutions will mostly buy $BTC. Maybe a little $ETH. Retail will mostly buy meme coins. This is why tech alts are underperforming. No one wants them.”
