Trump Coin And The Golden Age of Grift
“Crime is legal now." That’s the narrative spreading like wildfire across the social media platform X. And honestly, if you’ve seen what just happened, it kind of feels that way.
So, what’s going on? Let me break it down.
Trump’s Latest Venture
Donald Trump just launched a meme coin. Yes, days before his second inauguration, he decided it was a good idea to create his own crypto token and hype it to his millions of followers.
Even the crypto community—which loves a good meme coin—is cringing at this one. Why? Because it feels like a shameless cash grab.
The leader of the free world is hyping up what is, let’s face it, a glorified instrument for gambling.
If you’re just catching up, here’s what happened.
A $75 Billion Frenzy
Late Friday night, the Trump coin launched on the Solana blockchain. At first, people thought it was a scam.
Did Trump’s social media accounts get hacked? Why was he suddenly pushing this random crypto thing? But as time passed, the realization hit: this was legit. Trump had actually launched his own meme coin.
Once that became clear, the frenzy began.
From an initial value of basically nothing, the Trump coin’s fully diluted market cap hit $10 billion within three hours of its release. Four hours later? $20 billion. And by Sunday morning? A staggering $75 billion.
Now, we don’t know how much of the Trump coin Trump himself owns, but we do know that entities associated with him own 80% of it.
That means that at the highs, Trump’s personal stake in the coin was worth as much as $60 billion. You heard that right: Sixty. Billion. Dollars.
That’s almost a 10x jump in his net worth in under 34 hours.
Not Illegal
As absurd as this situation is, it’s not technically illegal. Every day, countless meme coins launch. Most of them fade into obscurity; some pump and then dump; and a rare few actually stick around.
There are actually entire platforms, like pump.fun, that allow anyone to launch their own meme coin in minutes—no technical expertise required.
You see, meme coins live in this weird legal gray area. Are they securities and thus subject to securities laws? Or are they not? Nobody really knows.
Under the Biden administration, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler, had a reputation for being relatively hostile to the crypto industry. But even under Gensler, meme coins thrived.
And now with Trump coming back as president, things could get even crazier.
Trump has promised to be a champion of the crypto industry. He’s floated the idea of creating a strategic reserve of digital assets—where the government itself would buy up crypto assets like bitcoin.
Could the Trump coin be a part of this hypothetical strategic reserve? It sounds ridiculous today, but with Trump, you never know.
Feels Shady
Let’s not forget, this isn’t Trump’s first foray into crypto. Remember his digital trading card NFT collection? How about the “World Liberty Financial” project? He’s been dabbling in crypto for a while.
Still, there’s something about the Trump coin that feels… different. Those other crypto ventures had at least the pretense of being valuable for those who participated in them.
The Trump meme coin does away with all that. It has zero intrinsic value—it’s pure hype, with no attempt to disguise it as anything else.
To put it simply, meme coins facilitate a form of gambling where early buyers can get rich, while latecomers are often left holding the bag.
The more hype a meme coin generates—luring in buyers with dreams of quick profits—the more money those early investors stand to make.
It can feel a bit exploitative, but as long as everyone involved knows what they’re getting into, it’s considered part of the game. The problem is, some buyers don’t fully understand the risks—they get caught up in the hype and end up taking significant losses.
And with the Trump coin, you can bet this issue will be amplified to an entirely new level due to the sheer scale of its reach and the weight of Trump’s name behind it.
The timing of the Trump coin launch makes it feel especially shady as well, taking place just days before Trump enters office. Why would you start your presidency with a decision that feels so transparently self-serving? What purpose does it serve other than to enrich Trump at the expense of his followers?
And the fact that Trump allocated so much of the coin’s supply to himself makes it feel even more questionable.
A Pandora’s Box for Politics
Some have also suggested that while the Trump coin probably isn’t illegal per se, it could set a dangerous precedent.
It opens a Pandora’s box where politicians could use meme coins as tools for bribery or influence-peddling, further blurring the already hazy lines between political power and personal enrichment.
But let’s be real—this is classic Trump. He’s made a career out of being outrageous and constantly shifting the Overton window.
Not to mention, he’s always found a way to capitalize on any opportunity to make a quick buck.
From hawking Trump-branded watches to selling bibles during his presidential campaign, this is just another chapter in the Trump playbook. The only difference is, this time, the stakes are in the billions.
A Semi-Positive Spin
Now, to be fair, there’s a positive spin some of this.
While meme coins are often seen as little more than fun gambling tokens named after internet memes or celebrities, some in the crypto community hold a more idealistic vision for them.
They imagine a future where these tokens go beyond pump-and-dump schemes to become utility tokens that offer real-world benefits to their holders—like exclusive access to events, merchandise, or digital platforms.
The PENGU coin associated with the Pudgy Penguins brand is an example of this.
But, like I said, the Trump coin project doesn’t even pretend to be useful. It makes no attempt to provide value beyond hype and speculation. And even if it did, I don’t think it would make it any more appropriate.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m all for crypto experimentation—even meme coins if you’re into that. But do we really want the president of the United States launching one?
There’s a reason that presidents have historically divested from their personal businesses or placed their assets in blind trusts—it’s to avoid conflicts of interest or even the perception of conflicts of interest.
Trump not only threw that tradition out the window but lit it on fire.
That’s why, while I do think meme coins are here to stay (I’ve written about how Dogecoin, the original meme coin with the Shiba Inu mascot, has stood the test of time and retained value), it’s hard not to feel uneasy about the Trump coin.
The Golden Age of Grift
The “crime is legal” joke on X captures this sentiment perfectly. Of course, crime isn’t literally legal—at least not for the rest of us.
But it definitely feels like we’re entering the “golden age of grift”—which is another sentiment that’s gaining traction across X as well.
If Trump can launch a self-serving venture like this with no real consequences, then any bad actor might be encouraged to follow suit. Under the Trump administration, the SEC isn’t likely to do much to stop them.
In other words, we’re swinging from the restrictive policies of Gensler’s SEC to what might be a complete free-for-all.
The Trade Off
Now, I acknowledge that there’s a trade-off between investor choice and innovation on one hand, and investor protection on the other. Perhaps Gensler’s SEC went too far in cracking down on crypto, stifling innovation and preventing people from using their money as they saw fit.
But now we’re swinging over to the other side, where there might be plenty of innovation, but also a lot of fraud and cases of unsuspecting investors getting burned.
Hopefully, the good outweighs the bad— but there’s no guarantees that that will be the case.
Anyway, we’ll see what happens; for now, crypto still feels like a casino. The truly useful applications of blockchain haven’t hit the mainstream yet.
I’m optimistic they will—eventually. But I’m highly skeptical that the Trump coin will be one of them.
The 80% of the Trump coin supply held by Trump and his associates is currently restricted from being sold, but they’ll have the chance to cash out in stages over the next three years.
The question is: will they take the easy gains and run, or will they hold onto their stakes to create something with lasting value? Only time will tell—but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
there's a very important aspect to this involving where a lot of the money came from (and almost all of it came through): China
https://cryptadamus.substack.com/p/the-trumpcoin-cometh
And how much real value does Bitcoin or Doge have now or when it started? They all started from “an initial value of basically nothing” same as this Trump coin. What’s the difference just because Trump initiated it?