Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin Coders Feud Over Whether to Crush $1 Billion Frenzy for Memecoins

  • Explosion of meme tokens choked the Bitcoin blockchain in May
  • Network developers debate whether to reject such transactions

A cryptocurrency ATM.

Photographer: Paul Yeung/Bloomberg
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The coders who maintain Bitcoin’s blockchain are clashing over whether to stamp out the meme tokens swarming the network.

A torrent of speculative coins led to a record number of transactions and an 11-fold spike in processing fees on the blockchain in May, creating a logjam and forcing the Binance exchange to temporarily halt Bitcoin withdrawals.