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Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world
The re-election of Donald Trump as president of the USA brought many firsts. The launch of the official cryptocurrency on Friday could surprise the most. This token has no inherent value. But depending on how you look at it, it can have some benefits.
Under the ticker symbol $TRUMP, the president-elect’s new crypto boo was worth about $10 billion as of Monday, based on circulating supply, six times its debut market capitalization. That’s a far cry from bitcoin, the $2 trillion goliath crypto. But as far as so-called memecoins go, it’s impressive, ranking third behind digital assets inspired by the dog Dogecoin and the Shiba Inu. A separate memecoin launched by Melania Trump reached a value of $2 billion by Monday, narrowly behind the Fartcoin token at $2.5 billion.
But what exactly is it? Not an investment, says the fine print – more of an “expression of support”. In other words, for all the hype, $TRUMP is just a new version of presidential collectibles, like the red Maga hat or the kickass-headed dashboard doll, only with less utility and a much more volatile price. Trump has already taken the commodity into the digital age, lending his image to a series of irreplaceable tokens — essentially digital works of art — including depictions of him as George Washington and a golden chess piece.
Even if it’s not a very good investment, $TRUMP has some value. First off, that’s a pretty strong statement of intent. Trump has indicated that his plan is to make crypto mainstream, including creating a US crypto stockpile and appointing a crypto czar to his cabinet. His new coin emerged just as the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler, a regulator who proved a scourge on would-be crypto-innovators, stepped down.
True, as currency both Trump’s and Melania’s tokens fail traditional tests — such as a plausible medium of exchange. As for informal tests, no hijacker is likely to ask for a ransom paid in $MELANIA. The circulation of both currencies is also limited to 1 billion tokens. However, the only true test of a currency is whether enough people will accept it as one. In that sense, there is no reason why $TRUMP is inherently dumber than Doge, Tether, or any other attempt at digital competition.
And if Trump’s coin turns out to have no lasting financial value, it could serve another function: as a live public opinion poll. But opinions can be fickle. Already by Monday, $TRUMP had jumped 1,000 percent, then dropped by one-third, according to CoinMarketCap. Being valued in real time by the market is something a president may value less and less as time goes on.
