Trump Meme Coins Are a Disaster in Waiting

As a European who doesn’t own Bitcoin, I enjoy a bit of schadenfreude when the cryptocurrency industry is really upset about something. And the latest bout of outrage is a doozy: The virtual-currency elites who saw Donald Trump as a crypto savior are now upset over his recent multi-billion-dollar Trump-branded meme coin sale. Investor Ari Paul called it “fleecing people for billions”; former Trump associate Anthony Scaramucci said it was dictator-level “corruption”; ex-Coinbase Global Inc. executive Balaji Srinavasan called it a “lottery” with no wealth creation.

Of course, they’re right to take a dim view of the Trump meme coin’s blend of naked cash-grab, MAGA cultism and pump-and-dump tokenomics. Here is a man convicted of fraud whose idea of an eleventh-hour announcement before being sworn in as the world’s most powerful person was to promote the flogging of 20% of a token with no intrinsic value, minting billions out of thin air and leaving the remaining 80% sat on by insiders. Melania’s subsequent token launch — which coincided with a slide in her husband’s coin — doesn’t look much better. If stomach-churning price swings no longer scare us, the conflict of interest and cynicism should. What’s to stop foreign powers tapping into this grift to reduce the risk of tariffs?