AI 'meme games' could be crypto's next memecoin-style mania
Illuvium's co-founder says AI can build a speculative crypto game in days for about $1,000 and expects up to 100,000 of them in a year. Most will be short-lived.
CryptoGroup Newsroom · · 2 min read
If AI makes a crypto game as cheap to launch as a memecoin, expect it to be traded like one: fast, loud and mostly gone within days.
AI tools could unleash a flood of throwaway, token-driven crypto "meme games", Illuvium co-founder Kieran Warwick has warned, telling Cointelegraph that building a speculative game like Wolf Game or Fishing Frenzy now takes days and around $1,000, instead of months. He expects as many as 100,000 such games within a year, many built to last only a few days.
The case being made
- Cheap supply: Warwick says "serial deployers" of games will emerge, just as launchpads like Pump.fun created serial memecoin deployers.
- Same audience: he expects the traders who gamble on memecoins to follow, calling the games a "new shiny wrapper" for the same bets.
- His own verdict: asked if that is good for crypto gaming in the long run, he said "probably not". Illuvium's flagship Overworld has been in development for more than six years.
Our take: supply is not the problem
The memecoin precedent is a warning, not a business plan. CoinGecko data cited in the report show memecoins' combined value peaked at $150.6 billion in December 2024 and fell almost 69% to $47.2 billion by November 2025. Most of the losses landed on late buyers.
Meanwhile, crypto gaming's weak spot has been demand. Mirai Labs CEO Corey Wilton said that after shipping six or seven games, his team concluded the demand in Web3 "simply isn't there". DappRadar counts only about $232 million locked across 2,356 gaming apps, and the top 50 gaming tokens are worth about $3.8 billion combined. Animoca Brands' Robby Yung doubts low-effort meme games will last, because "user retention is the lifeblood of games", though he welcomes cheaper development overall.
AI that builds games in days will mostly produce more tokens attached to games, not more players. If you see one promising fast returns, treat it like any new token: check who controls the supply and whether you can actually sell. Our guide on how to spot crypto scams lists the classic warning signs, and the Dacity coin episode showed how fast copycat tokens appear around a hyped theme.
This article is for information only and is not financial advice. Crypto assets are volatile; do your own research. Read our disclaimer
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