Trump Token Launches Amid Inauguration Buzz:-
Three days before he took office, as Donald Trump was preparing for his inauguration, those close to him were also hard at work launching a new crypto currency on the night of Friday, January 17, Trump token launched with a simple post on social media.
Within 24 hours, Trump’s token raked in as much as $14 billion in market cap. But as the President took office, the Trump token frenzy had many in the crypto community worried. They feared another meme coin craze could risk the legitimacy of an industry already beleaguered by scandal.
Crypto Community Reacts to the Meme Coin Frenzy:-
A number of meme coins have had their 15 minutes of fame, but these tokens really captured mainstream attention at the height of the last bull cycle. They’re created every day. They pump, they dump. People move on. Very few of them maintain value. Mean, coins are a kind of crypto currency that thrive on hype.
They’re not meant to be useful, but instead play on light hearted internet culture. They’re meant to be fun. It’s entertainment. It’s going to the casino and sitting at the craps table with all your buddies, and hopefully everyone’s rolling, and it’s a hot table, right? That’s kind of the the heart of of what you’re doing when you’re investing into meme coins.
The Rise and Fall of Meme Coins:-
The biggest player in that last bull cycle was Dogecoin. Dogecoin is kind of the quintessential meme coin that started meme coins, right? It was made as a joke. Its market cap peaked at $88.7 billion that’s bigger than companies like Chipotle, Dell, computers and Capital One. It was talked about across crypto Twitter, and it even captured the attention of the social media platforms eventual owner, Elon Musk, who hosted SNL in May of 2021 and all eyes were on the billionaire to see if he’d shout out the meme coin.
Oh, so it’s a hustle. Yeah, it’s a hustle. We should note that moment led to a sell off, but that’s sort of how meme coins work. They often trade on feelings, speculation and popularity, not necessarily on fundamentals. It’s an attention economy, and you’ll watch, you know, a coin take off, and people will rotate from one to another.
Bitcoin’s Recovery and the Legitimacy of Crypto:-
And as the crypto market marched higher in 2021 so did other meme coins, Chiba Inu, a play on Dogecoin, peaked at roughly $41 billion in market cap in october 2021 but then 2022 you it was, it was a tough moment. Sam bankman freed was, you know, one of the biggest financial stories that I think mainstream media had picked up on in years.
So in the wake of all that the industry needed to build back its image, and some didn’t think that dog themed coins would be taken too kindly by Wall Street banks or regulators. It actually allowed us to teach the world that Bitcoin is different than this, and think that success was marked by the launch of the spot ETFs.In January 2024 as bitcoins price and reputation was in recovery, major asset managers launched nearly a dozen ETFs on us, exchanges tied to the price of Bitcoin.
Now the spot Bitcoin ETFs allowed big name issuers like Black Rock and fidelity to hold Bitcoin directly. It was a shining example of legitimacy for the crypto industry, and shuttled Bitcoin to new all time highs. But 2024 wasn’t done, bringing Bitcoin to the mainstream.
Trump’s Commitment to Bitcoin and Crypto Policy:-
It will be the policy of my administration United States of America, to keep 100% of all the Bitcoin the US Government currently holds or acquires into the future. We’ll keep 100% hope you do well please. His base has a general distrust of the government, and Mr. Trump realized that many in the crypto community have a similar mistrust, and that he could appeal to their emotions by saying he understood where they were coming from.
This is the steel industry of 100 years ago. Really is. Think you’re just in your infancy. When Trump won Bitcoin soared past the $100,000 price threshold for the first time ever. Then came more promises from now President elect Trump, a crypto and AI czar for one, but also some promises that raised eyebrows, a department of government efficiency. Nick. Name Doge a possible nod to the meme coin.
Someone hacked his Twitter account, because the way it was announced just seemed like you can sometimes see all these spams and things like that.Throw one Solana in just because we’re just excited to see crypto being adopted in all forms, and over time, we’re going to trust our customers in the American economy to sort out, ultimately, what matters most.
The Trump Coin Launch and Mixed Reactions:-
Trump has done many things over the years. Meme coins are something new, and time will tell exactly what he’s doing with them and how that affects his job as President of the United States, the launch of the token in a run up to his inauguration was met with mixed reaction from the crypto community.
Bitcoiners really showed up for Trump in this election. Some of the verbal promises he made in Nashville was for a Bitcoin reserve for certain Bitcoin policy. There was fear because of the meme coin, that meant he wasn’t gonna do it. It’s easy to dismiss things like meme coins as unimportant, but I think what we saw in the early development of the Internet, for example, was that cat videos ultimately led to mass adoption of YouTube.
Ethical Concerns and the Impact of Trump Coin:-
You could buy in anything, lose money on it, but when you are the most influential man in the world right now, it’s a little dangerous. One of the biggest concerns was how the token worked, and, more importantly, how it might line the pockets of the president. It doesn’t give you any cash flow rights.
It doesn’t give you any voting rights. You know, it just gives you this warm feeling inside that you’re supporting our dear President. The website for Trump token says that 80% of coins are held by the Trump organization and its affiliates. You can see that breakdown of ownership here.
And then this chart shows that at the three month mark, those insiders can start selling their stake of coins. That increases over the course of the next three years. And then over here is Melania meme token, where only 15% of those coins are available for public distribution. It’s created in a way that they’re going to dilute it over time, more tokens are going to be released, so that inevitably, the price is going to go down and down.
What Does Trump’s Meme Coin Mean for the Future of Crypto?:-
No one really knows how to relate to these things. Yet, how do you think about the President of the United States launching a meme coin? Nobody knows the answer to that question. So what’s this mean for meme coins and Trump coin in the era of Trump’s presidency, and maybe more importantly, what ethical concerns are raised by a presidential meme token? Cryptos were designed from the start to be censorship resistance, and so this raises a lot of ethical questions as to who who is actually putting money into these and what do they expect to get for it? It’s a green light to the country, to the world, saying, hey, crypto is here, right? Meme coins are a thing. It’s the biggest, it’s the best. It’s gone to billions and billions. We reached out to the issuers of Trump and Melania, respective tokens, as well as the White House, but haven’t heard back yet.