It is not just meme coin, scam projects are also tarnishing crypto currency.
Cryptocurrency has always been connected to or been accused of being scam because of those projects.
For me if an investor or trader falls victim of those scam projects or failed altcoins, it was their fault for not doing a proper research.
However, there are many things that make crypto tarnished, especially scammers who try to deceive new investors with meme coins, or projects that offer large investment profits. However, for people who have been in the crypto world for a long time, I think we are all used to this situation. However, for new people joining, I think it will influence their views, and spread their views to other lay people. This creates an effect like what is happening now in many people, who think that bitcoin or crypto is a scam and fraud.
There are many reasons why cryptocurrency's good name is tarnished, one of which is memecoins and scammers as you said. Of course, this becomes a thorn in the tender flesh, because they also want to profit from this cryptocurrency, but the path they take is wrong.
Focusing on memecoin, on the one hand, the existence of memecoin has tarnished the name of cryptocurrency because many people are getting to know crypto for the first time and investing there and they immediately suffer losses. But on the other hand, the existence of memecoins also attracts many people to learn more about crypto, for example in my area many people are finally interested in crypto because they see people making big profits from memecoins.