Mere days before they take over the White House, the now-President and First Lady are trying to make their mark in the crypto world.
The Trumps might officially be in the White House, but that doesn’t mean they won’t have some “side hustles” also on the go.
Last Friday, just three days before he was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump launched his very own meme crypto coin, “$TRUMP.”
The now-First Lady’s own crypto coin launch came on the heels of husband two days later on the eve of Monday’s inauguration ceremony. Melania Trump announced the launch of her own cryptocurrency, called the “Melania Meme Coin” to her social media channels.
“The Official Melania Meme is live! You can buy $Melania now!” she posted, which her husband re-posted.
For those not familiar with meme coins, they’re actually influenced and inspired by internet trends. You don’t have to be rich or powerful to create one: they can be launched by anyone, and actually thousands of meme coins already exist on the market.
According to Coinbase—one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the U.S. that allows anyone to buy, sell, store, and transfer cryptocurrencies—a meme coin is considered or even volatile although it can even be launched as a lighthearted joke.
We know what you’re thinking: so how are the White House couple’s meme coins going for anyway?
CoinMarketCap is an app that measures the total value of cryptocurrency in that it is calculated by multiplying the number of coins in circulation by each coin.
The app showed that the Trump meme coin was initially sold for $10 each before skyrocketing almost to $70 by Sunday morning. The value of the crypto coin dipped later on that day after Melania launched her own meme coin. As of Monday late afternoon (EST), the Trump coin is valued at approximately $39, with a market cap of around $10.3 billion.
When Melania’s meme coin initially launched it was trading at around $7, but as of mid-afternoon on Monday (EST), the crypto coin dipped to around $5. It had a market cap of $1.57 billion, according to the app.
We can’t help but wonder: does the President and First Lady’s mark on the crypto world
create a conflict of interest?
CNN reported on Monday that serious ethics concerns have indeed been raised. “The timing of the Trump cryptocurrency launch just days before taking office…alarmed ethics experts and even some in the crypto industry.”
Hollywood Life media outlet echoed the sentiment: “Critics have warned that the Trump meme coin could present a risky opportunity for special interests and foreign governments to attempt to gain influence with the president.”
“The most dangerous thing in the country about the Trump coin is what comes next.” Anthony Scaramucci, a former Trump White House communications director, posted on social media site, X. “Now anyone in the world can essentially deposit money into the bank account of the President of the USA with a couple of clicks.”
Meanwhile, President Trump encouraged his supporters to “have fun” with the meme coins. The website that sells the tokens emphasized that the cryptocurrencies are meant to be expressions of support and not investment opportunities.Meanwhile, President Trump encouraged his supporters to “have fun” with the meme coins. The website that sells the tokens emphasized that the cryptocurrencies are meant to be expressions of support and not investment opportunities.
For the First Lady’s part, she is apparently getting on board with the growing influence of meme culture in finance, saying that she has more serious plans for her cryptocurrency: she wants it to support charitable causes.
