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submitted 2 days ago by FundMECFSResearch to c/news@lemmy.world

President-elect Trump launched his own cryptocurrency overnight and swiftly appeared to make more than $25 billion on paper for himself and his companies. 

Why it matters: The stunning launch of $TRUMP caught the entire industry off-guard, and speaks to both his personal influence and the ascendancy of cryptocurrency in his administration.

  • It also speaks to the nature of the crypto industry that someone could have $25 billion worth of something that literally did not exist 24 hours previously.
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[-] Milddirection@sh.itjust.works 48 points 1 day ago
[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

The fact that fartcoins are 30 times as "valuable" as Trumps idiot-coins should be evidence enough.

[-] PlaidBaron@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago

Isnt this showing the exact opposite? Fart coin is less valuable?

[-] seliaste 5 points 1 day ago

To be fair the valuability of a coin is not that much related to its popularity, but to its difficulty of obtention through proof-of-work (of proof of stake)

[-] NutWrench@lemmy.ml 26 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Meanwhile, back in reality:

The venture was co-ordinated by CIC Digital LLC - an affiliate of the Trump Organization - which has previously sold Trump-branded shoes and fragrances.

Meme coins are used to build popularity for a viral internet trend or movement, but they lack intrinsic value and are extremely volatile investments.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9vmym2jvy9o.amp

Just because you SAY something is "worth hundreds of billions" does not mean it is actually WORTH hundreds of billions.

[-] westyvw@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago

Yes. Just seeing the words "market cap" should tell you something. It is a completely meaningless term when you are talking about crypto currency.

The price means somethings, the amount held means something. The entity that sold them can mean something. But market cap isn't it.

[-] Saleh@feddit.org 2 points 16 hours ago

To be fair, "market cap" is also a bullshit metric for stocks. The market price only ever represents the price of the currently traded stocks. Just dump 20% of the stock of any large company on the market and see how well their "market cap" lasts.

[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 25 points 1 day ago

Isn’t that a conflict of interest?

[-] ICastFist@programming.dev 4 points 13 hours ago

It's not a crime if it's the president, the scrotus said so

[-] FundMECFSResearch 44 points 1 day ago

His whole political career has been a conflict of interest.

[-] glitch1985@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago

Who's going to stop him?

[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

They are only worth what ~~people~~ idiots pay for it.

[-] aggelalex@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago

Holy shit, inb4 he pumps and dumps and avoids jail cause of presidential immunity

[-] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago
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[-] frigidaphelion@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago

Dear god, please let donald trump choke on a piece of potato and die. Amen 🙏

[-] tamal3@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

Really sucks that I, an atheist, acknowledge that I can do nothing more impactful than pray Trump dies soon.

[-] BeardedBlaze@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago
[-] ICastFist@programming.dev 2 points 13 hours ago

Thomas Crooks tried and fucking failed 🤦‍♂️

[-] prole 6 points 1 day ago

Also, it's a bummer that there's no eternal punishment waiting for him.

[-] ALoafOfBread@lemmy.ml 77 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Trump launches ~~meme coin~~ money laundering scheme, apparently ~~makes~~ launders more than $25 billion overnight

Ftfy

[-] MothmanDelorian@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

Bingo, the CCP can't bribe Trump directly but they can buy a ton of crypto.

[-] Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world 82 points 1 day ago

This is so fucking stupid. Everything. I feel like we're living in a fucking clown show.

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[-] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 27 points 1 day ago

I hope everyone is acutely aware that you, me, WE are not in a class war.

WE HAVE LOST A CLASS WAR.

What happens now?

[-] Anti_Face_Weapon@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago

Time to start the next one

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[-] umbraroze@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago

It's easy to think that crypto is over. The NFT bubble is so deflated. We've seen big companies like FTX bomb the hell out. I mean, the signs are obvious now, aren't they? Crypto was, conclusively, proven to be the scam everyone said it would be and we don't need any more proof, right?

And then we hear Trump administration is really into this crypto nonsense.

Somehow.

Guess they didn't get the memo.

Brace yourself for 4 years of spectacular, glorious fail.

And if someone says stuff like "oh, Trump just got filthy rich off of the meme coin he launched yesterday", let's wait and see how the coin does at the end of his administration.

[-] itsprobablyfine@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 hours ago

In my mind this is just another way for shady actors to give him money with less paper trail. Is that not possible? I admit I don't actually know how people are buying or selling this.

Honestly if that's what's happening it seems like an actual 'good' use case for crypto. Good as in clever/useful not good as in, well, good.

[-] ICastFist@programming.dev 1 points 13 hours ago

let’s wait and see how the coin does at the end of his administration.

Pfft, I'm betting he'll rugpull in a month, tops, possibly before february even starts.

[-] westyvw@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago

Bitcoin is sitting at 105,000 each. Businesses have bought in, banks have bought in. A whole country buys them like clockwork for their citizens future.

Its a damn ponzi scheme where the last to hold the bag is the loser. Yet it is so big now, so entrenched, I dare say it may be too big (to be allowed) to fail.

Insane. And the worst part is, nobody actually uses them. Not in any significant way. It's just let's get rich!

[-] Gloomy@mander.xyz 1 points 11 hours ago

Even worse, they are used for lot of criminal cases, like human trafficking, childporn, drugs, weapons and more.

[-] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 hours ago

Like 95% money laundering, drugs and tax avoidance scams, like 5% everything else.

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[-] AAA@feddit.org 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

$25 billion, in paper. The value will be down to zero way before he manages to sell off even $1 billion from it. And thats a generous guess. Meme coins don't retain value.

Making ANY money this way is outrageous, but we sooner solve world peace and world hunger than Trump being able to sell this off for the current paper value.

[-] Acters@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Yeah I feel as though he won't get that amount of money either and making any money is also outrageous.

I feel like the biggest pressing issue here is that this is not meant to go to the moon and stay there. Instead I think the real motive is to make inflation. Look at it, it's not meant to gain that amount of value, it's meant to skew our perception of value. This way the current inflationary prices don't look out of place when, in reality, everything is over valued. I guess it is also meant to make some people more complacent to inflation by giving them hope of "there being a chance" even though it clearly details how screwed over most of them will end up in the end compared to the house/dealer. Gambling is and will always be a big problem that adds more pressure to an otherwise unhealthy economy.

[-] AAA@feddit.org 1 points 17 hours ago

I don't deny the possibility, but that sounds like a lot of foresight which I'm not ready to attribute to Trump or his team. Additionally I don't think they care about "the people". The voters served their purpose. They are meaningless to them now. They will continue to produce anger and outrage, and will extract as much money as possible while it's still possible.

I think it's a simple money grab. Just not a $25 billion one.

[-] graverubber@lemmy.ml 186 points 2 days ago

I suppose that's more streamlined method of bribery than buying property in his towers or booking his hotels.

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[-] RedstoneValley@sh.itjust.works 101 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Crypto market cap does not equate the equivalent in dollars. When you create a new cryptocoin you can freely adjust the coin's parameters such as the amount of available coins. So let's say you "print" 1000 coins and sell one at $50. You now have a market cap of $50000.

It's like pulling a rabbit out of a hat, with the notable distinction that the rabbit isn't real. What makes it real is if enough suckers actually buy the coins with real dollars.

[-] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 37 points 1 day ago

I wish more people understood this. Especially in the press, since its their job to educate everyone else.

Trading volume is what matters, not trading price. It's only worth $25 billion if you can turn $25 billion of it into cash.

Unfortunately since banks still haven't take wised up to this, and the wildcat crypto banks really haven't, its likely still possible to pump a meme coin and then take out loans against the purported asset value. The bank is then left trying to repossess a pile of worthless memecoin when you fail to repay the loan.

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[-] jpreston2005@lemmy.world 105 points 2 days ago

Please someone explain how this is in any way legal. This is fucking absurd. The amount of hatred I have for every racist imbecile that supported this rapist fascist felon is too much for me to bear. The logical thing to do would be to just ignore everything because my mental well-being is more important, but this seems like some historic occurrence that should be stopped by any means necessary.

[-] vanontom@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

At this point, anything the billionaires want is legal. It is fucking absurd. The entirety of T****'s first term was insanity. This one will be catastrophic, and unfixable for generations. His supreme court, judges, corruption has made it inevitable.

I tried to logically deal with the firehose of lies and hatred, thought it was important and worth it. Not anymore. Not again. This country is too fucking dumb for me to care anymore, too easily manipulated. Not worth the pain. I did what I could, voted against it every time. "But the price of eggs!"

I'm just going to fuck off and try to enjoy myself while it burns. Someone wake me for the revolution, the oligarch bbq, or some legit riots at least.

[-] resin85@lemmy.ca 2 points 19 hours ago

I for one, hope to see the guillotine make a surprise return. It worked for the French.

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[-] WatDabney@sopuli.xyz 128 points 2 days ago

They aren't buying cryptocurrency - they're buying influence. The cryptocurrency is just a front.

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[-] aesthelete@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

All the wrong people got money.

QE was a method of upward distribution of wealth.

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[-] GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 52 points 2 days ago

Holy fuck, the grift is so blatant that I'm almost beginning to respect it.

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this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2025
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