What the Hell Is $TRUMP? What Is a Memecoin? A Guide to the Trump Family’s Crypto Grift
Everything you need to know about Trump's latest venture to profit off his presidency and become a crypto multibillionaire overnight.
You may have heard about Donald Trump releasing a cryptocurrency token, a memecoin, called $TRUMP over the weekend. You may have no idea what those words mean in that order. I’m here to help.
What happened?
Days before his inauguration, Trump released a cryptocurrency token called TRUMP – or $TRUMP, or Official Trump, or that thing that your cousin just lost a few hundred bucks on. Thousands of people do this every day, but when Trump does it, people get out their wallets.
What is a ‘memecoin’?
The $TRUMP token is a memecoin – basically, a crypto token spun up in seconds to respond to some meme or pop culture ephemera. Think the “Hawk Tuah” lady or that internet-famous squirrel that got euthanized. Many things that have passed through the public microscope have been turned into scammy crypto tokens.
No memecoin has inherent value. It’s like a penny stock but even worse – there’s no real company or cash flow attached to the token. Many memecoins have a lifespan of seconds before sputtering to zero. The ones that do “succeed” in any real sense – think DOGECOIN – have tiny dollar values attached to them and are deeply volatile. They are products of hype and shared delusion. People buy in because they hope to sell before the price crashes.
Was this a ‘pump and dump’ scheme?
Memecoins are used constantly for crypto “pump and dumps.” Scammers or simply well-connected industry pros hype up a new token, using social media and influencers to push its profile, causing it to surge in value, which in turn allows insiders to sell their holdings before the price crashes. $TRUMP is a prototypical pump and dump, occurring at the highest level of politics and grifting.