Trump Coin: The presidential meme coin that’s shaking up cryptocurrency speaks volumes about our strange, new world

Donald Trump does not shy away from doing the unthinkable. Just days away from the inauguration, President-elect Trump has launched his official crypto coin, called the Trump Coin, shaking the world of cryptocurrency. How so? Look at this figure: the cryptocurrency, within 24 hours, has amassed a jaw-dropping $8 billion market capitalisation, and a trading volume of about $1 billion, according to cryptocurrency exchanges, and is still rising. The meme coin was launched at a price of $0.18, but surged to a staggering $27.42, almost 322% rise, according to data culled from CoinMarketCap.

One thing is clear: Trump Coin is not just riding the wave of meme coin hysteria—it’s potentially set to challenge another popular meme coin's reign: Dogecoin.

At first glance, the emergence of a presidential meme coin might sound like something from a satirical headline. But when you dig deeper, it’s just business as usual for Trump. This is a man who has made a career out of leveraging his brand, whether it’s through Trump University, Trump Hotels, casinos, or NFTs. What’s different this time isn’t the hustle—it’s the medium: cryptocurrency, a sector that's as volatile as a reality TV star’s public persona.

Can Trump Meme Coin Rise Very High in Price?

So, what does the future hold for Trump Coin? Well, no one can predict the exact trajectory of a meme coin—after all, these things have a habit of making unpredictable jumps. But let’s play with some numbers. Currently sitting at a modest $25 per coin, the coin’s potential ceiling is a topic of fierce speculation. If Trump Coin were to surpass Dogecoin (which is valued at a cool $60 billion), simple math suggests its price could easily surge to $100-$300 per token. While these projections hinge on a lot of “ifs” (mainly no insider sell-offs), it’s not entirely impossible.

For potential investors looking to get in on the action, Trump Coin is a wild ride. The initial surge might seem promising, but let’s not forget meme coins have the consistency of a pop star’s career trajectory. One minute they’re on top, the next they’re a flash in the pan. In other words, while its connection to a sitting president is an undeniably strong hook, the coin’s success will depend on maintaining an ever-enthusiastic community, as much as it does on its technical fundamentals.

The Regulatory Safe Harbour of Absurdity

The thing with Trump is that he loves to battle the system. And if we interpret the Trump Coin in similar light, we might be heading somewhere. In other words, the Trump Coin didn’t just pop up out of nowhere. Its timing, coinciding with Gary Gensler’s departure from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the agency that spent years waging war on cryptocurrencies, is more than a little curious. Under Gensler’s strict interpretation of securities laws, legitimate cryptocurrency projects like Libra (now Diem) and LBRY were smothered by regulatory red tape. On the other hand, meme coins, which don’t pretend to offer utility or profits, were able to flourish by cleverly sidestepping these regulatory constraints.

It’s a phenomenon that could be called “the regulatory safe harbour of absurdity”—the more blatantly absurd and purely speculative a token is, the less likely it is to be classified as a security and subjected to regulatory scrutiny. As a result, tokens like Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and now Trump Coin have been able to amass billions in market cap, all while dancing around traditional investor protections.

Trump Coin’s Ethical Quandary

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Trump-related venture without some ethical concerns. The ability for anyone, anywhere, to purchase Trump Coin—thanks to cryptocurrency’s pseudonymous nature—opens the door for all kinds of political influence. While traditional Trump-branded ventures have been scrutinised for potential conflicts of interest, the global reach of Trump Coin amplifies these risks. What’s to stop foreign actors or financial oligarchs from using the coin as a means to subtly influence the political landscape, or even fund a political agenda?

In many ways, this mirrors the ethical concerns raised by Trump Media and Technology Group’s Truth Social platform. But with cryptocurrency, the stakes feel even higher, given the global anonymity it offers to investors.

The Unintended Consequences of Crypto Regulation

Trump Coin’s launch is not just a quirky blip in the world of cryptocurrency—it’s a shining example of how regulatory policy can have unintended consequences. While Gary Gensler and the SEC were scrambling to clamp down on the more traditional, utility-based cryptocurrencies, they inadvertently cleared the runway for speculative, meme-based tokens. The result? A market filled with coins that are more about hype than substance, but are still worth billions of dollars. Who would have thought that a presidential candidate could be the face of such a coin?

So, whether Trump Coin succeeds in dethroning Dogecoin or fades into the annals of crypto history, its very existence is a testament to the strange world we live in. It’s a mix of politics, branding, and regulatory missteps, all packaged into one meme coin that could change the way we think about digital currencies—and perhaps politics. Forever. We are after all in a new world. A Trumpian world. The old rules do not apply anymore.