Dave Portnoy Calls Meme Coins “Gambling,” Unlikely to Last

Portnoy shares wild meme coin wins and losses but now sees XRP as a potential breakout with Bitcoin-like upside.

Dave Portnoy, the lively founder of Barstool Sports, stopped by Consensus 2025 to share his zany journey through the world of meme coins. In an interview with Bullish CEO Tom Farley, Portnoy pulled back the curtain on a tale of wild optimism, rapid crashes, and an unyielding interest in XRP.

It all began, predictably enough, with meme coins and Portnoy’s own brand of FOMO. As claims of a 9,000,000,000% return on SafeMoon began circulating, Portnoy dove in, poking fun at the lack of fundamentals in a video that later landed him in hot water.

“They basically said that SafeMoon paid me to promote them, which is a total lie. I never get paid for anything. I paid $20k to get out of the lawsuit because they said I was promoting them despite the fact that I didn’t get paid a dime, which is also a lie because I paid to get into it,” Portnoy asserted.

Despite the lawsuit and the fact that he was a “huge cynic” about meme coins, Portnoy found himself drawn deeper into the fold.

“I went to SNL with Lady Gaga and I was just typing away and I’m like ‘what the hell is going on here?’ They said you couldn’t buy anything less than $1 million and I was like ‘well I guess I'm not buying it then' because I have no money and I don’t know what any of this is.’ But then I bought some later and I lost all of it.”

He continued, “I'm one of the lucky ones because the dev gave me back my money. They said ‘I like what you do and I'm going to give you back your money.’ I never got any of the money back from the lawsuit but I got all of my money back from the meme coin which is ironic because I was making fun of it the whole time.”

As the interview progressed, Portnoy recounted his decision to launch two tokens called Greed and Greed 2, which ultimately led to a loss of $400,000.

“I think I got scammed by a lot of people but I also scammed myself by buying into it in the first place because I had no idea what any of it was. I was just following people and I had FOMO.”

He also spoke about a token called JailStool, a satire token that was created by the community as a response to Barstool’s Tempatoken, which was later shut down by Coinbase.

“I think it’s funny how people are making fun of it because it’s true. It’s like they’re saying ‘oh my god they’re making a token out of anything now’ and I'm like ‘yeah, that's what I said!' I never understood any of it. I was just having fun and I think that's what people are upset about.”

The conversation then shifted to a personal anecdote that highlighted the stark realities of meme coin investing.

“I went to Vegas and some guy came up to me in a restaurant and said ‘you made me lose $200,000.’ And I was like 'what do you mean?' He said 'I followed everything you said and I lost $200,000.' I think it might have been fibred but I felt terrible.”

He added, “I felt bad for him but also I was like ‘what are you doing?' It’s all fun and games behind the computer in your pajamas but people are losing and making real money which is a wild thing to consider.”

Later in the interview, Portnoy shared his thoughts on XRP, revealing that he's personally interested in the token despite not fully understanding the technicalities.

"I don't know if there's as much FOMO in Bitcoin now, it's so established. But that's why I'm in XRP, because it feels like FOMO. It's just $2.40, what if that's the next Bitcoin?" Portnoy remarked.

While others might be focusing on technical analysis or market cycles, Portnoy's attention was drawn to the price point and the potential for a breakout asset, much like Bitcoin's previous rally.

"They're saying Bitcoin hit $2 trillion in market cap which is insane. I don't even know what market cap is but I'm pretty sure that's a lot of money," Portnoy stated, highlighting his less technical approach to investing.

According to Portnoy, XRP is one of the few tokens left that can generate hype among retail investors, especially with Bitcoin's price action.

"I think we're in a funny time in crypto. I don't know if any of the other tokens can get people hyped up like that. Maybe if XRP went on