A reader wrote in with questions about President Trump’s cryptocurrency meme coin and how it could be used for unseemly influence, so today I wanted to highlight an aspect of Trump’s latest crypto venture that’s gotten some mentions in the political press, but could use even more awareness.
Days before his inauguration, Donald Trump launched a crypto token named $TRUMP, sparking a buying spree among Trump fans that briefly put the meme coin’s market cap as high as $15 billion. The market cap is lower now, but still almost $6 billion. Disclaimer copy in the footer of its website states, amusingly, that Trump’s coin “has nothing to do with any political campaign or any political office or governmental agency,” though Trump has stated that he launched the coin.
First Lady Melania Trump launched one too, and at the moment its market cap is $424 million. Take these figures with caveats: technology researcher Molly White has explained that market cap figures in crypto are flawed, when compared with traditional currencies. This is because early estimates of market cap generally come from extrapolating out the price of a small number of tokens, compared with the larger amount of reserve tokens yet to enter circulation.
Trump-owned companies own 80% of the $TRUMP coins, which gives it the classic signature of a potential “pump-and-dump” scheme rather than a collectible whose value could appreciate as Trump’s legend grows. On the official website, collectors can “buy now with a debit card or crypto,” and other registered users on crypto exchanges like Coinbase can purchase the token after connecting a bank account, debit card, or other methods like Google Pay.
