Is Meme Index ($MEMEX) A Scam? Uncovering Major Red Flags

Picture showing computer with suspicious meme index, similarly to how MEMEX presale is suspicious

Meme Index (MEMEX) has been gaining traction across media platforms – though all of this attention stems from sponsored content. The project itself presents an intriguing and novel concept: an index token that provides investors with exposure to a curated mix of trending meme coins. Investors would have the option to allocate funds across different tiers of meme coins – established names, lesser-known projects, rising contenders, or entirely new tokens.

The four index categories would carry varying levels of risk, with their coins selected through a voting mechanism involving $MEMEX holders. In theory, this setup allows for diversified exposure to multiple memecoins, the flexibility to choose between riskier and safer portfolios, and a dynamic asset mix that changes over time based on community input.

However, this is where the promising narrative ends. A deeper dive into the project’s website and whitepaper quickly reveals an abundance of red flags common to many suspicious presales. Additionally, the very foundation of meme indexes presented in this project collapses.

Where’s the Proof That the Index Even Exists?

The biggest question is also the simplest: does this “Meme Index” actually hold any assets? The entire pitch revolves around offering exposure to a baskets of meme coins, yet nowhere does the team provide evidence that they actually own or manage these assets, or even that they plan to do so.

Traditional index funds work because they physically hold stocks or commodities. Even in crypto world, stablecoins have (or at least claim to have) reserves backing them. Their value is derived from the fact that they are collateralized by real assets.

Here, there’s no indication that $MEMEX is tied to anything real. If the project doesn’t hold the meme coins it claims to track, then what exactly are investors buying?

What Is $MEMEX Token For?

Even if the index were real, there’s another problem. Why does it need a $MEMEX token?

If the goal is to track a collection of meme coins, there are much simpler ways to do that. The team could have created a smart contract where investors deposit their crypto, and the contract automatically buys and holds the right tokens. That would be transparent and easy to verify.

Instead, they introduce $MEMEX, a token with no clear function. Investors aren’t buying the underlying assets – they’re buying something completely separate that the team controls. That makes it easy to manipulate and difficult to trust. And raises another issue…

How Does the Token Price Change?

A proper index fund increases in value when its assets increase in value. But how does Meme Index handle this? The team hasn’t explained how gains are reflected in the token price.

If the index doubles, will they mint more $MEMEX tokens? That would dilute the value for existing holders. Will the price adjust automatically? If so, what mechanism controls that? These are basic details that any real financial product should have, but Meme Index provides no answers.

The Voting System is a Disaster Waiting to Happen

They claim the index will allow holders to vote on which meme coins to include. Sounds good, right? Well, not so fast.

There are no clear guidelines on how voting proposals are initiated, how frequently votes occur, or what percentage of votes is required for approval. Without these safeguards, the voting system could be exploited in several ways:

  • If voting power is based on token holdings, whales and insiders could easily control the selection process. The project developers could hold a significant portion of the supply, allowing them to add or remove tokens as they please. Investors may believe they have a say, but ultimately, the biggest holders would dictate decisions.
  • If voting is open to all holders, bot-driven manipulation is a real risk. Thousands of fake wallets could be used to push obscure, low-value tokens into the index, potentially forcing legitimate investors to hold worthless assets.

Either way, the voting system might be exploited – bad actors could create random coin, rig the vote to get it included in the index (forcing the investors to indirectly buy it) and then dump their coin holdings, crashing the token and walking away with investors money.

Moreover, there’s no transparency on how the index is weighted. Are all included tokens given equal representation? Is weighting based on market cap? Or is it another factor decided by the voting system? Could developers assign 99% of the index’s value to their own memecoins? These are critical questions that remain unanswered.

All of these issues could be avoided with fixed index rules – for instance, ensuring that the safest index always invests equally in the 10 largest meme coins, regardless of which ones they are. However, under the system outlined in the whitepaper, abuse is practically inevitable.

Superficial Audits & Anonymous Team

Meme Index has two audits (from Coinsult and Solidproof), but both have major limitations – they only check the smart contract for basic vulnerabilities. They do not verify whether the index actually holds assets or whether the voting system functions as described.

Equally concerning is the complete anonymity of the development team. With no known individuals accountable for the project, investors are left alone if things go wrong.

Moreover, the Coinsult audit reveals that initially when contract is created, the deployer receives all initially created assets. In theory, this means the developer could simply choose not to distribute tokens to investors – who would have little power to challenge this decision.

As is common with many questionable presales, Meme Index has been aggressively promoted through sponsored articles. However, genuine community engagement is absent.

A search for organic discussions on platforms like Reddit shows little to no authentic conversation. Meanwhile, Twitter/X engagement appears fake – several comments are copy-pasted across different posts, suggesting the use of paid engagement bots.

The Conclusion

Meme Index presale has several warning signs common among other dubious crypto projects: an anonymous team, vague audits, paid promotional content, and promises of massive returns with little transparency.

However, even if the project successfully launches, there is no verifiable evidence that the index is backed by real assets, and the voting system is easily exploitable. Moreover, the utility and pricing of the $MEMEX token – the very asset investors are encouraged to buy – is unclear.

If you’re interested in a memecoin index, you can manually purchase a selection of meme coins and hold them in self-determined proportions. This approach is significantly safer than investing in a presale filled with glaring red flags.

Sadly, many crypto presales are scams.

We have a section on our website focused on uncovering red flags in ongoing presales to help potential investors stay safe. If you are interested in investing in presales, you might find it worthwhile to read our other investigations, even when you’re not intending to invest in those particular coins – you’ll start to notice repeating patterns and learn the tricks that suspicious presales use.

You should also always search phrases like “is [presale coin] a scam” and check Reddit forums. If you find content warning about the presale – or no community whatsoever – you should seriously consider whether the presale is legit. When in doubt, you can also contact us – we’ll be happy to investigate the presales that you’re interested in!

Kate Taylor

Kate Taylor