Among the many most vocal critics of TRUMP, the controversial and wildly fashionable memecoin launched by Donald Trump on the eve of his 2025 inauguration, are the very crypto fans he might have hoped to courtroom.
The TRUMP coin, launched on Jan. 17, noticed a dramatic worth surge, climbing from $7 to an all-time excessive of $75 inside 24 hours earlier than settling at $38. Two days after TRUMP’s debut, MELANIA, a coin endorsed by First Girl Melania Trump, entered the market. In contrast to its predecessor, MELANIA has struggled, beginning round $7 and plummeting under $4 after a briefly peaking at $14.
Whereas each tokens’ unstable trajectories seem to have minted some in a single day millionaires, they’ve additionally drawn sharp criticism from trade insiders.
The potential for conflicts of curiosity has been a focus of the backlash, with critics — together with members of the U.S. congress — elevating issues that the token might allow people to curry favor with the president.
Anthony Scaramucci, a former White Home communications director turned crypto advocate, voiced his apprehensions on X (previously Twitter): “The most perilous aspect of Trump coin for the nation is what follows. Now, anyone globally can effectively deposit money into the bank account of the President of the United States with just a few clicks. Every favor—be it geopolitical, corporate, or personal—is now openly for sale.”
The choice to launch a memecoin has additionally sparked broader criticism throughout the crypto trade. Whereas memecoins have grow to be a outstanding use-case for blockchain know-how, many builders argue they reinforce a get-rich-quick notion that undermines the sector’s credibility.
Gabor Gurbacs, founding father of digital asset agency Pointsville, posted on X: “Trump needs to dismiss his crypto advisors, from top to bottom.”
Nic Carter, a normal associate at a crypto funding agency and a vocal Trump supporter, was equally scathing: “It’s absolutely preposterous that he would do this,” he told Politico. “They’re plumbing new depths of idiocy with the memecoin launch.”
Particular issues have been raised about the coin’s distribution. 80% of TRUMP tokens are concentrated in a small number of blockchain addresses controlled by CNC Digital, the firm that launched the coin. Such concentration is a hallmark of potential “pump-and-dump” schemes, where insiders inflate a token’s value before selling off their holdings, leaving other investors with losses.
There’s no evidence that Trump’s team plans to “dump” its tokens. Nicolas Vaiman, CEO of blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps, noted to CoinDesk that the distribution of TRUMP tokens at least matched what was outlined on its official website. Additionally, the insider-held tokens align with prior distributions of Trump’s NFT trading cards, which were also managed by CNC Digital, meaning the tokens may be reserved for the president’s NFT holders.
The same transparency does not apply to MELANIA, however. About 89% of MELANIA tokens are controlled by insiders, according to Bubblemaps. The on-chain supply does not match an official distribution breakdown on the token’s website, which earmarked 35% of tokens for “public distribution” and “neighborhood.”
Vaiman said the First Lady’s memecoin has cast a shadow over the original TRUMP coin: “TRUMP could have been a statement from President Trump saying, ‘I endorse crypto,’” Vaiman said. “Melania launching her tokens feels like they just want to make as much money as they can on this, and then forget about it. It gives this a different flavor.”
This is not the first time the crypto community has questioned Trump’s forays into the industry. In August, Trump and his sons launched World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a platform that promised to develop a lending product. The project drew backlash for pre-selling tokens before delivering any tangible value, and critics were quick to point out the involvement of a former dating coach and memecoin promoter on the WLFI team, as well as the allocation of a percentage of presale proceeds directly to a Trump-controlled company.
The conflict-of-interest potential was also immediately apparent. Tron blockchain-founder Justin Sun recently became WLFI’s largest investor, making a $30 million buy of the challenge’s tokens. In an X publish on Tuesday, Donald Trump Jr. introduced that World Liberty Monetary would purchase a few of Tron’s TRX tokens for its treasury.
In my view, if I have made any money in cryptocurrency, all credit goes to President Trump @realDonaldTrump. Both Trump Coin and World Liberty Financial are bound to perform exceptionally well.
— H.E. Justin Sun
(@justinsuntron) January 22, 2025
A Hong Kong-based crypto billionaire, Sun was previously charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission — a department now under the control of Trump’s White House.
