Memecoins need to evolve or they will stagnate both in growth and utility | Credit: alfernec/Shutterstock
Before stepping into regulatory infrastructure as COO of Zekret, Artur Gulinski was deep in Web3’s high-risk frontier. He made money, lost more, and learned how the culture of memecoins and Degen speculation shaped an entire generation of crypto founders.
“I was in the degen trenches,” Gulinski told Euro Weekly News in an exclusive interview. “NFTs, raffles, whitelist hunts, we created 3,000 wallets and secured 16 whitelist spots. We flipped them within minutes. That covered everything I lost on trading.”
The project was Murakami Flowers, one of the most hyped NFT drops of the time. Each mint cost 0.1 ETH and resold instantly for 6 ETH. It was fast, chaotic, and exhilarating.
“That was a good time,” says Gulinski. “But I also learned I’m not a trader. I don’t have the emotional capacity for it. I don’t have diamond hands.”
He describes entering the market in 2017, riding the early ICO wave and later falling into NFTs and memecoins. While the experience was volatile, it was also immersive. Gulinski read smart contracts, joined communities, and networked extensively. That laid the foundation for his later career.
“Web3 for me was always about people,” he says. “You don’t have anything without people. The builders, the founders, the ones bootstrapping for a year without seeing their families.”
He does not dismiss the “degen” culture. In fact, he credits it with opening doors. Token-gated communities like CPG Club connected him with other founders and exposed him to real projects.
“It was a serious network. Some of those people went on to build major companies.”
But the memecoin season of 2023 marked a turning point. As co-founder of a Solana-based project, he saw how volume boosting and token manipulation became normalised.
“We scaled to $200,000 a month in six months,” he says. “But it was a grey area. We were boosting volume, creating tokens, advising projects. It was not something I could stay in.”
With new regulations coming into force in the EU and the US, Gulinski saw the writing on the wall.
“I told the team we had to pivot. It was too risky. They said the money was too good. So I stepped down.”
That decision led him to Zekret. While he still watches degen communities, he no longer plays in them.
“I’m still a degen at heart,” he says. “But I’m also an operator. I’ve seen how fragile this space is without structure. If we want institutions to come in, we need to clean it up.”
He believes the expectations set by early crypto returns have distorted founder incentives.
“I’ve talked to VCs who say if it’s not a 5x in two years, it’s not worth it. But that’s not normal. In traditional markets, 5x in 10 years is good.”
For Gulinski, the message is clear. The memecoin era served its purpose, but the ecosystem needs to evolve.
“It’s time to build real infrastructure. The degens got us here. Now it’s time to make it work for everyone else.”
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