Donald Trump launched a multibillion-dollar meme coin just days before taking office and instantly saw his net worth balloon. But then, as the initial excitement passed, the value plunged and occasionally spiked again through the first roller-coaster hours of Trump’s second presidency. Despite the optimism of some crypto enthusiasts that the $TRUMP coin’s debut Friday heralded a new era of automatic crypto riches, the value of the coin had plummeted to around half of its weekend high of $72.62 by the time Trump was sworn in Monday.
Meme coins have no intrinsic value or particular usefulness as a currency but serve more as a cultural signifier. They usually are based on an internet joke, such as the internet’s fascination with the doge dog (Dogecoin), or make use of a celebrity’s image. While real money can be made riding the speculative highs and lows of meme coin trading, it’s also one of the sectors of the crypto world most prone to bubbles and subsequent collapses.
If the new $TRUMP coin is more of a way for crypto enthusiasts to signal their support for Trump—which might be the most coherent explanation for a type of crypto product that doesn’t have any point to it at all—the timing of this new Trump product was propitious. After announcing the coin’s creation Friday night at a party for the crypto industry to celebrate Trump’s inauguration, the price spiked to as high as $72.62. A total of 1 billion coins were created in an instant, so Trump’s ownership of an estimated 800 million of the new $TRUMP coins meant that his wealth almost instantly blew up from a bit less than $7 billion to possibly as much as $65 billion on the eve of his presidency.
But then the price started falling, and in the minutes shortly before Trump’s official inauguration, the price had fallen to just under $50. Following his inauguration at noon, the price plunged below $40, before rebounding slightly.
In theory, that’s still worth about $33 billion for Trump, but the volatility is a good indicator of how reliable of a source of wealth the coin really can be. With this product, no matter what the price, Trump’s holdings will have some value because there was no expense for him in creating it—and that value will be based on nothing but consumers’ interest in buying something (digital) with his name on it.
On Monday, the Trumps announced that first lady Melania Trump had also created her own meme coin, $MELANIA, which hit a high of $13.05 but by early afternoon on Inauguration Day had fallen to $5.27.
Not everyone was thrilled with the creation of the memes—ethics expert Norm Eisen told the Washington Post that the coin was “the single worst conflict of interest in the modern history of the presidency.” Even some in the crypto community bristled at the idea, calling it a “horrible look” and “predatory,” noting that meme coins are generally speculative and essentially worthless.
Trump has promised to remake the US economy in the image of crypto, and his children have started a decentralized finance company—a platform for making financial transactions using crypto instead of a traditional banking institution—that Trump benefits from. However, as the websites for both $TRUMP and $MELANIA coins make clear, these are not serious investment vehicles.
“Trump Memes are intended to function as an expression of support for, and engagement with, the ideals and beliefs embodied by the symbol ‘$TRUMP,’” a disclaimer on the $TRUMP coin website reads, “and are not intended to be, or to be the subject of, an investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any type.”
The Melania Memes website puts it even more bluntly: “Melania Memes are intended for collecting and entertainment purposes only. They are not financial instruments or investments. Always do your own research and never invest more than you can afford to lose.”
