What is the price of Trump’s new memecoin?
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The election of Donald Trump as the President of the United States has created many precedents. The launch of an official cryptocurrency on Friday could be quite a surprise. This token has no intrinsic value. But depending on how you look at it, it may have some benefits.
Badge $TRUMP, the president’s new cryptocurrency, was worth about $10bn on Monday, six times its initial market capitalization, based on the distribution offering. That’s a long way from the 2tn crypto goliath Bitcoin. But as memecoins go, it’s impressive, ranking third behind dog-inspired digital assets Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. A separate memecoin launched by Melania Trump hit $2 billion in value as of Monday, narrowly behind the $2.5 billion Fartcoin token.
But what exactly is it? It’s not an investment, says the small print — it’s more of a “statement of support.” Put another way, for all the hype, $TRUMP is a new spin on presidential collections, like a red Maga cap, or a bobble-headed dashboard toy, only with fewer accessories and a more flexible price. Trump has already taken production into the digital age, using his image for a series of timeless tokens — essentially digital artworks — including portraits of George Washington and a golden chess piece.
Although not exactly a good investment, $TRUMP has some value. For one, it’s a pretty cool statement of purpose. Trump has indicated that his plan is to take crypto mainstream, including creating a US crypto reserve and making cabinet appointments. The new coin comes as the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler, steps down as a regulator who has proven to plague crypto-innovators.
True, as currency both Trump’s and Melania’s tokens fail traditional tests – as a plausible currency. As for more informal challenges, no hacker will demand a ransom in $ MELANIA. The circulation of both currencies is also capped at 1 billion tokens. That said, the only real test of a currency is whether enough people accept it as one. In that sense, there is no reason why $TRUMP is inherently more stupid than Doge, Tether, or any other digital auction experiment.
And if the Trump coin doesn’t have lasting financial value, it could serve another function: as a live poll. But opinions can change. Already on Monday $TRUMP increased by 1,000 percent and then decreased by one third, according to CoinMarketCap. Real-time pricing by the market is something the president will appreciate over time.
john.foley@ft.com
