When the $TRUMP meme coin dropped Friday night, nobody was shocked. Or not less than, they shouldn’t have been. He has a knack for leaping headfirst into endeavors he thinks he can earn money on, in self-promoting trend, that always finish in catastrophe. A few of these ventures embody Trump Airways, Trump Vodka, Trump Steaks, Trump College, Trump Journal, Trump Plaza Lodge and On line casino, Trump Mortgage, Trump: The Recreation. Crypto is the subsequent recreation on the town he’s determined to throw his hat into.
I’ve already written articles and talked at numerous lengths about Trump leaning into the crypto house to earn votes on this previous election that in some ways was fairly profitable. At Bitcoin Nashville this previous summer season, in an effort to garner help for his presidential candidacy, Trump stated some notable issues together with that America will develop into “the crypto capital of the planet and bitcoin superpower of the world,” that he would fireplace Gary Gensler, and that he desires all remaining bitcoin to be made in America (regarding from a decentralized standpoint, and extremely implausible in actuality). He additionally famously stated that he would commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht on Day one, which if he does I would be the first to provide credit score the place credit score is due. (For extra on this I like to recommend watching the latest Motive documentary on why Ross must be freed).
Crypto is Donald Trump’s subsequent frontier and combines a number of issues he completely loves on the subject of enterprise offers – Fast straightforward cash, self-promotion, America first messaging, and little bureaucratic friction standing in his method. So, what’s $TRUMP coin?
It’s constructed on the Solana blockchain with a complete provide of 1 billion tokens. Initially, 200 million tokens can be found for circulation, whereas the remaining 800 million are held by CIC Digital, a Trump Group affiliate, topic to a three-year lock-up interval (which implies the Trump household holds 80% of provide…). Following its launch, the $TRUMP coin’s market cap surged, reaching roughly $6 billion. The coin’s value peaked at $33.7. The $TRUMP coin was marketed as a way for supporters to precise their alignment with Trump’s beliefs, fairly than as an funding alternative, which is hogwash for the pump and dump self-enrichment scheme that he’s in my view immoral and unethical for creating, and traders (oops, guess we should always say “fans”) are silly for participating in.
With inauguration on Monday, we’re getting into uncharted territory the place it’s doubtless Trump will challenge Govt Orders referring to bitcoin and crypto, and now emboldened by the presidency, lack of authorized worries, and supporters that I really consider can be high quality with no matter he does. As he famously quoted, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?”
Some of these actions could be positive for the Bitcoin industry and advocates in the United States. But many of his actions could also equally benefit the broader crypto space that is rife with pump-and-dump scam coins and useless get rich quick schemes for wealthy insiders and people who have lobbied him throughout this last cycle. The pump and dump crypto landscape, his goofy coins and NFT’s, make sense to Trump. In fact, I’m betting he truly believes this is crypto’s purpose, while knowing little about Bitcoin. Trump has repeatedly said he has “fun with crypto” and ended his keynote address at the Bitcoin Conference this past summer by saying “have a good time with your bitcoin and your crypto and everything else that you’re playing with.” Trump’s experience in and views of crypto and bitcoin are around fun and making easy money. But with Bitcoin, many of us in the space are fighting for much more, which includes Bitcoin’s many use-cases as censorship resistance digital currency, digital gold, a medium of exchange to use in self-custody and via privacy preserving tools, a powerful tool for human rights, and much more. This isn’t a gamble for us…it’s the future of money that challenges the dollar and central bank rule.
If Trump really began to grasp this, based on his track record and previous statements on Bitcoin, he’d be quite against this use of Bitcoin. Or perhaps he knows what Bitcoin is at some level, and would rather promote the “fun” meme coins, and maybe Bitcoin as digital gold, but nothing more. He did after all say in 2021, quite clearly, “Bitcoin, it simply looks like a rip-off. I do not prefer it as a result of it is one other forex competing in opposition to the greenback.” He added that he wanted the dollar to be “the forex of the world.” (For extra on this idea I’d extremely suggest following Mark Goodwin and his work on the bitcoin greenback.)
Trump desires you to maintain taking part in with crypto, funneling cash to his organizations, however it’s unlikely he’d be a fan of anybody utilizing bitcoin as a competitor to the greenback, circumventing conventional finance or utilizing privateness instruments (significantly in case you are an adversary or from what he deems a left/woke trigger, which maybe sooner or later he’d classify our nonprofit The Progressive Bitcoiner as). I’ll preserve selling Bitcoin as resistance cash, and hope you’ll be a part of me, fairly than endlessly playing on crypto “and everything else you’re playing with.”
This can be a visitor publish by Trey Walsh. Opinions expressed are solely their very own and don’t essentially mirror these of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Journal.
