The Ethereum co-founder warned against crypto projects offering “sugar-high short-term fun” rather than those used to build wealth.

Vitalik Buterin, one of the co-founders of Ethereum, delved back into politics on social media, warning users about the consequences of elected officials launching “political coins.” 

In a Jan. 23 reply on X, Buterin said the regulatory space governing digital assets had entered a “new order” with “the most powerful people in the world [...] cheering on the idea of anyone creating tokens for anything, at any scale.”

Though he did not specifically call out US President Donald Trump for the launch of his Official Trump (TRUMP) token, Buterin hinted that similar projects were “sugar-high short-term fun” rather than tokens helping many to build wealth.

“Now is the time to talk about the fact that large-scale political coins cross a further line: they are not just sources of fun, whose harm is at most contained to mistakes made by voluntary participants, they are vehicles for unlimited political bribery, including from foreign nation states,” said the Ethereum co-founder.