Meme coin: How Donald Trump becomes one of world’s richest overnight and what it means for his second term

Move over the Royal Mint.

Your commemorative coin days are numbered.

Donald Trump, the global king of branding doesn’t need a hunk of metal to highlight his heroics.

Digital tokens are a far more cost-effective way to sell adulation, and with the launch of the $TRUMP meme coin, The Don has generated $96 billion in personal paper profits in the process.

And if you love the Trumps, why not go for the his and hers set?

In that case, throw your hard earned at a MELANIA coin (market cap $US5b).

Money and power

It’s getting hard to work out who is going to make the most money out of the election of Donald Trump.

Elon Musk was front running the return on investment, having dropped $US130m to get Trump elected on top of the $US44b to buy Twitter, which he used to actively support Trump and his policies.

Since Trump’s election, Elon Musk’s wealth has soared 41 per cent, up $US187b to $US450b, according to Bloomberg’s billionaire index.

Peter Thiel, another of the so-called ‘PayPal mafia’ and a key backer of VP J.D. Vance, has seen his wealth jump 30 per cent to as much $US16.8b thanks to soaring values in his security software company Palantir.

It is a meteoric rise in wealth in just three months.

But just 36 hours after issuing 1 billion $Trump coins, with 200 million tokens going to the public and the remaining 800 million owned by Trump controlled entities, the President’s paper wealth had soared by $A96b. That theoretically put him into the top 30 richest people in the world.

Ironically, the launch of the MELANIA coin at 4pm Sunday New York time, caused $TRUMP to halve in value.

But it has already rebounded to $A97, and now the Trump organisation now has a three year project that can exploit the world’s largest loudhailer to generate income at the drop of a hat.

World Liberty Financial, the crypto investment arm of the Trump Corporation doesn’t appear to be slowing down, purchasing domain names for trumpcoin, erictrump and barrontrump.

The crypto President

Mr Trump has been feted by the cryptocurrency industry, plumping for an era of looser regulation after being constrained for years by the Biden administration.

Not long ago Trump himself was no devotee of digital currencies, tweeting in July 2019 his disdain for the whole sector.

“I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity . . .”

What a turnaround.

And what a surprise to the hundreds of tech bros who attended the crypto ball in Washington DC on Friday night. In attendance was Trump’s pick to oversee cryptocurrency, former Pay Pal executive (where he worked alongside Elon Musk and Peter Thiel) David Sacks, as well as Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.

Apparently they had no idea, as they were listening to rapper Snoop Dogg and munching on the canapes to justify the $US5000 entry ticket, that Trump was about to pull the greatest crypto stunt of all time.

The cryptocurrency industry spent $US131m on Congressional races in 2024 to elect dozens of pro-crypto lawmakers but that investment doesn’t buy you a heads up on Trump’s megadeal.

Trump, who has always believed in caveat emptor, seems to have no problem with meme coins generated from ‘thin air’ if it his own. Inspired by internet memes or popular culture, meme coins are typically driven by social media hype and community enthusiasm rather than intrinsic utility or technical innovation, and are highly volatile and speculative.

Those who gambled early made millions, with one trader already turning a $29 million profit in under three days.

The crypto industry, which has been desperate for recognition as a legitimate financial product now has a wildly distracting sideshow to contend with.

Some will lose their life savings by investing in Trump’s “get Trump-richer quick scheme” and some of the encouraging work being done to unclog the global financial pipes may be affected.

But the industry would be heartened to see that Trump has $96b worth of skin in the game.

“Despite being objectively absurd, it shows Trump supports the industry and will likely defend it,” said Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at Capital.com.

“Crypto is carving out a legitimate niche in the investment landscape, either as an alternative asset or because of the blockchain. This just happens to be the really stupid part of it, largely separate from everything else but this legitimises it further.”

Others worry that by tying his personal wealth to the value of the coin, anyone looking to influence Trump now has a direct way to do so.

“Any effort the Trump Organization was making to demonstrate they were concerned about potential conflicts, specifically where it comes to foreign governments — this seems to entirely undermine,” Danielle Brian, executive director of the nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight told Bloomberg.

“Trumpcoin is the democratization of kleptocracy,” Scott Galloway, best-selling author and co-host of Pivot, one the top ranked tech podcasts in America, said on social media. He postulated that Vladimir Putin could offer to buy $10b of Trumpcoin in return for Trump ending arms shipments to Ukraine.

“Congress has been for sale for a while. Now the world is for sale,” Mr Galloway wrote.

For now, euphoria is the name of the game.

Under the Biden administration, the crypto industry was hit by more than 100 enforcement actions led by the Securities and Exchange Commission. By contrast, Trump has declared he wants the US to be the crypto capital of the world and has entertained the idea of a strategic bitcoin reserve. That attitude has helped Bitcoin soar above $US100,000.

With such a commitment to the sector, it is no wonder speculators would be piling into $TRUMP, particularly as any pronouncement via social media could send its value soaring.

If in pursuit of such profits, a warning from Kyle Rodda.

“You are gambling. So set your expectations accordingly.”