Trump Cashes In By Launching His Own Cryptocurrency

[Fantine]

Meanwhile, last night, while the leaders in the cryptocurrency industry were at a ball in honor of President-elect Trump’s inauguration, Trump launched his own cryptocurrency. By morning he appeared to have made more than $25 billion, at least on paper. According to Eric Lipton at the New York Times, “ethics experts assailed [the business] as a blatant effort to cash in on the office he is about to occupy again.”
Aday—creating a financial instrument so people can transfer money to the president’s family in connection with his office. It is beyond unprecedented.” v Noti, executive director of the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, told Lipton: “It is literally cashing in on the presidencCryptocurrency leaders worried that just as their industry seems on the verge of becoming mainstream, Trump’s obvious cashing-in would hurt its reputation. Venture capitalist Nick Tomaino posted: “Trump owning 80 percent and timing launch hours before inauguration is predatory and many will likely get hurt by it.” --Substack, Heather Cox Richardson, January 18, 2025

Donald and Melania Trump launch cryptocurrency meme coins before inauguration

Donald Trump launched $TRUMP cryptocurrency, a meme coin, days before his inauguration. It quickly reached over $32 billion in value. Melania has now launched her own.

www.businessinsider.com

This information appears on Fox, CBS, NY Times, Reuters, and many other media--so pick your favorite reference, multiply corroborated all over the web.

Earning $25 billion (at least on paper) in one day.

Even venture capitalists call him "predatory" and say many will get hurt by this.

According to Eric Lipton at the New York Times, “ethics experts assailed [the business] as a blatant effort to cash in on the office he is about to occupy again.”

As you well know, I have never been a Trump supporter, but this is a new low even I could not imagine him doing.

Trump supporters, please. I care about you. Do not fall for this predatory crypto issuance.

 

[Fantine]

Oh, just thought of a silver lining. If he did this in NY (finance capital of the country) I hope Letitia James, NY AG, will launch another fraud indictment against him. She successfully shut down Trump University and got some compensation for the victims. She successfully got back half a billion in tax fraud fines for beleagured and cheated NY taxpayers.
If anyone can stop predatory activities in their tracks, it's James.

 

[RocksInMyHead]

Oh, just thought of a silver lining. If he did this in NY (finance capital of the country) I hope Letitia James, NY AG, will launch another fraud indictment against him. She successfully shut down Trump University and got some compensation for the victims. She successfully got back half a billion in tax fraud fines for beleagured and cheated NY taxpayers.
If anyone can stop predatory activities in their tracks, it's James.

As scummy/predatory as this is, I don't think it actually breaks any laws. At least, not yet.

 

[ozso]

After all the gloating over the prospect of Trump losing all of his properly and being brought to financial ruin, I'm find the angst some folks are displaying over this very amusing.

 

[Fantine]

While the other 45 Presidents spent their transition periods educating themselves on current events and building trust for their well-prepared agenda and the wise, experienced advisers they chose for their cabinets....

Trump was studying how to monetize the situation by peddling branded products, Bibles, digital trading cards, and now, in the most loathsome way, cryptocurrency.

Let's see what happened to someone's $1000 investment. On Sunday, the cryptocurrency was worth $58 billion. It has now fallen, first to $15 billion, now to $9 billion.

Perhaps a blue collar worker living from paycheck to paycheck invested $1000 on a Trump meme cryptocoin on Sunday. It would now be worth $115.17.

Or maybe, more dangerously, a lot of that $58 billion was invested by foreign nations--perhaps Russia, hoping to incentivize Trump to hand them Ukraine. I really don't care if they lost 85% of their investment, but let's face it, Trump prepared for the presidency by trying to make a killing from it.

This is the individual you voted for. God help us all.

 

[BCP1928]

After all the gloating over the prospect of Trump losing all of his properly and being brought to financial ruin, I'm find the angst some folks are displaying over this very amusing.

Musk and Trump had been touting replacing the dollar with Dogecoin. It looks like Trump may have decided to put his own brand on the scheme.

 

[RocksInMyHead]

After all the gloating over the prospect of Trump losing all of his properly and being brought to financial ruin, I'm find the angst some folks are displaying over this very amusing.

I'm not sure what the connection between these two ideas is meant to be. The "angst" over this has nothing to do with Trump's wealth, but rather the fact that he/his agents are running a crypto scam (or at least something that looks very much like one). Memecoins have zero intrinsic value - they gain and lose market cap based solely on hype and demand. Inevitably, what happens is that the massive percentage (80%, in the case of $TRUMP) of the coins that are reserved from the initial offering get dumped on the market and the value crashes. A few people make money (mainly the insiders who are invested in the reserved holdings, as well as the investment firms and cryptobros who bought in the first few hours), but everyone else is left holding the bag.

As a stark illustration of this, the value has already crashed 40-50% from the peak because a lot of people bailed to chase the next memecoin (MELANIA).

 

[Fantine]

After all the gloating over the prospect of Trump losing all of his properly and being brought to financial ruin, I'm find the angst some folks are displaying over this very amusing.

Our angst is for the small investors who believed in Trump's financial acumen and lost up to 85% of their "investment." It's called compassion.

The property Trump lost ($25 million for running a fake university, $500 million to New York State and E Jean Carroll for massive tax fraud and Carroll's sexual assault) was never really "his," anyway. When you cheat students trying to get ahead, that $25 million is compensation for services not received. When you pay $500 million to New York State to reimburse New York taxpayers for taxes you failed to pay over 15 years, that money was never yours, it was the government's.

I don't find it "amusing" that people with little to invest lost their shirts to a scam. I hope this scheme was hatched in a state with an Attorney General who fights for the little guys and holds the big guys accountable.

 

[ozso]

Musk and Trump had been touting replacing the dollar with Dogecoin. It looks like Trump may have decided to put his own brand on the scheme.

Awesome.

 

[ozso]

I'm not sure what the connection between these two ideas is meant to be. The "angst" over this has nothing to do with Trump's wealth, but rather the fact that he/his agents are running a crypto scam (or at least something that looks very much like one). Memecoins have zero intrinsic value - they gain and lose market cap based solely on hype and demand. Inevitably, what happens is that the massive percentage (80%, in the case of $TRUMP) of the coins that are reserved from the initial offering get dumped on the market and the value crashes. A few people make money (mainly the insiders who are invested in the reserved holdings, as well as the investment firms and cryptobros who bought in the first few hours), but everyone else is left holding the bag.

As a stark illustration of this, the value has already crashed 40-50% from the peak because a lot of people bailed to chase the next memecoin (MELANIA).

Our angst is for the small investors who believed in Trump's financial acumen and lost up to 85% of their "investment." It's called compassion.

The property Trump lost ($25 million for running a fake university, $500 million to New York State and E Jean Carroll for massive tax fraud and Carroll's sexual assault) was never really "his," anyway. When you cheat students trying to get ahead, that $25 million is compensation for services not received. When you pay $500 million to New York State to reimburse New York taxpayers for taxes you failed to pay over 15 years, that money was never yours, it was the government's.

I don't find it "amusing" that people with little to invest lost their shirts to a scam. I hope this scheme was hatched in a state with an Attorney General who fights for the little guys and holds the big guys accountable.

Amazing how smart you are compared to them.

 

[durangodawood]

Americans historically have proven suckers for the classic flim-flam man. Its in our national DNA. Nothing new here.

 

[RocksInMyHead]

Amazing how smart you are compared to them.

Smarts and knowledge aren't the same thing. Crypto scams exploit a lack of knowledge in their victims, not a lack of intelligence.

 

[Hans Blaster]

While the other 45 Presidents spent their transition periods educating themselves on current events and building trust for their well-prepared agenda and the wise, experienced advisers they chose for their cabinets....

Only 45 people have been President (not only is Trump about to be a repeat occupant, but Grover Cleveland was as well.)

Trump was studying how to monetize the situation by peddling branded products, Bibles, digital trading cards, and now, in the most loathsome way, cryptocurrency.

Let's see what happened to someone's $1000 investment. On Sunday, the cryptocurrency was worth $58 billion. It has now fallen, first to $15 billion, now to $9 billion.

Worth is quite a stretch. The key to valuating memecoins is to take the number of coins created from thin air and multiply by zero.

Perhaps a blue collar worker living from paycheck to paycheck invested $1000 on a Trump meme cryptocoin on Sunday. It would now be worth $115.17.

More likely it was their 23-year-old, live-at home, son who picks up occasional shifts at Subway and just blew his February car payment on a meme coin.

Or maybe, more dangerously, a lot of that $58 billion was invested by foreign nations--perhaps Russia, hoping to incentivize Trump to hand them Ukraine. I really don't care if they lost 85% of their investment, but let's face it, Trump prepared for the presidency by trying to make a killing from it.

It is unclear how much "outside money" flowed in. The vast majority of the "coins" have always been held by one DJT and were not traded. Of the 1 B "coins" poofed into existence, 800 M (80%) are in the hands of Trump himself. How many are held by other insiders is unknown.

This "valuation" game in digital coins is a lot of hot air. Imagine I create a coin (BlasterCoin) with 1 million and I sell one "coin" to someone for $1 and keep the other 999,999 for myself with a claimed value of $999,999 (999,999 BlasterCoins at $1 each) plus the $1 makes me an instant "millionaire". (I could poof 1B into existence and be a "billionaire".)

This is the individual you voted for. God help us all.

 

[Fantine]

Please don't try to minimize the sleaziness and corruption in this move. And student workers at Subway deserve protection, too.
And let's get one thing straight: Running a cruptocurrency meme scam is Not part of presidential duties. Criminal enterprises on the side are not covered by immunity.

 

[A2SG]

Please don't try to minimize the sleaziness and corruption in this move. And student workers at Subway deserve protection, too.
And let's get one thing straight: Running a cruptocurrency meme scam is Not part of presidential duties. Criminal enterprises on the side are not covered by immunity.

Presumably. It's always possible for a friendly SCOTUS to rule otherwise, if the subject ever comes up.

-- A2SG, these days, you never know....

 

[Pommer]

Presumably. It's always possible for a friendly SCOTUS to rule otherwise, if the subject ever comes up.

-- A2SG, these days, you never know....

Wouldn’t it be neat if all of The Nine were personally chosen by Donald J Trump?
I betcha Pam Bondi thinks so!

 

[A2SG]

Wouldn’t it be neat if all of The Nine were personally chosen by Donald J Trump?
I betcha Pam Bondi thinks so!

Just imagine the shenanigans he'd be able to get away with then!!

-- A2SG, makes Nixon look like a piker....

 

[Pommer]

Just imagine the shenanigans he'd be able to get away with then!!

-- A2SG, makes Nixon look like a piker....

He’d probably get to go on all of their yachts!

 

[Nithavela]

If people start throwing their money in the toilet, would you mandate having money nets installed in each one?

Let them waste their savings. A few will get rich, the rest will be suckers. It's just like vegas.

 

[Fantine]

If people start throwing their money in the toilet, would you mandate having money nets installed in each one?

Let them waste their savings. A few will get rich, the rest will be suckers. It's just like vegas.

The purchasers are untraceable making it easy for foreign nations, lobbyists, etc. to "persuade" leaders to do their bidding.
This is why it's so important for leaders to avoid shady side businesses, even if the proceeds fund their next impeachment and indictments.
If you learned that Tik Tok spent $10 billion on these phantom cybercoins as a gift to the owner, would you see the possibility for bribery?