Is Donald Trump looking to endear himself further to the $2.5 trillion crypto industry with the launch of a new crypto token called "Trump Coin"?
That’s the buzz, according to crypto industry participants, as Trump ramps up his campaign for the November presidential election. Industry experts are trying to figure out the origins of a so-called meme token registered on the Solana blockchain platform under the symbol "DJT," and the moniker "Trump Coin."
DJT, of course, is the stock symbol of Donald Trump's Truth Social social media platform. The stock itself has been a meme stock favorite since going public in March, with shares of DJT trading as high as $79.38. The stock currently trades around $35.
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Like meme stocks, meme tokens are inspired by extraneous factors such as internet trends and pop culture references. Although some of the most famous meme coins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu were originally created as a joke, their popularity and cult-like followings have accelerated the total meme coin market cap to a staggering $50 billion.
By launching on the Solana blockchain, Trump Coin will join the ranks of other popular Solana-based meme coin projects like "Dogwifhat," a token associated with a meme of a dog wearing a pink knitted hat; "Jeo Boden," a satirical cartoon of President Biden; and "Mother Iggy," a meme coin launched last month by Australian rapper Iggy Azalea.
According to blockchain explorer SolScan, the token began trading on Solana this evening with the market cap currently sitting at $73 million.
FOX Business could not confirm if the token is directly or indirectly affiliated with Trump, but sources in the industry say people affiliated with the former president have been planning to launch a digital coin for at least two months.
A spokesman for the Trump campaign didn't return requests for comment. A spokesperson for Truth Social also didn't return calls for comment.
When asked for comment on the Trump Coin launch, former GOP presidential candidate and advisor to President Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy, directed FOX Business to the Trump campaign but had this to say:
"I’m glad President Trump and his campaign are leaning into crypto, including accepting it – he’s ahead of the curve. Embracing crypto will help Trump continue to bring libertarians and your not-typical Republicans into the fold – it’s a winning issue."
Trump Coin is the latest of a handful of meme coins inspired by political candidates this election cycle. Other non-affiliated Trump meme tokens are trading in the crypto landscape including a token trading under the symbol MAGA, his "Make America Great Again" slogan with a cartoon of Trump and an American flag in the background.
"MAGA" coin, which operates under the ticker TRUMP, is currently the most popular political meme coin trading at just over $9 with a market cap of over $400 million. The price of the token dropped on the news of the launch of Trump Coin.
Another Trump-inspired meme coin trades under the letters TROG; it accompanies a cartoon of a frog with a MAGA hat on. Much smaller in comparison to MAGA, it has a market cap of $7.38 million and also fell on the news of the Trump Coin launch.
Neither MAGA nor TROG are affiliated with Trump, his various business ventures or his 2024 presidential campaign directly, although according to blockchain research firm Arkham Ventures, the former president owns a substantial number of MAGA and TROG tokens, which he was gifted by the token creatorTrump, himself, is hardly a crypto bro but he has tapped into the industry as a potential source of voters as the November elections near. Around 52 million Americans have used crypto, according to a Coinbase study, and they are becoming increasingly politically active as they work to elect crypto-friendly politicians to congressional positions. One such candidate is John Deaton, a crypto lawyer who’s currently running as a Republican to unseat Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren who is notoriously anti-crypto.
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Trump is worth an estimated $6 billion, but, according to Arkham Ventures, he now has a crypto portfolio worth around $6 million that he accumulated from various sources, including his own NFT collection and his holdings in MAGA coin and TROG coin.
The crypto vote could be pivotal in the coming presidential election, some analysts say. Many industry participants regard themselves as single-issue voters, meaning they will vote solely based on which candidate they think is the most crypto-friendly, regardless of their other political views, industry participants tell FOX Business. Trump is targeting those voters with the help of some of his advisers, including Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur and crypto enthusiast who has been advising Trump on digital asset policy.
