Trump Memecoins Are A Disaster Waiting To Happen

The virtual currency elites who saw Donald Trump as a crypto saviour are now upset over his recent multibillion-dollar Trump-branded memecoin sale. Investor Ari Paul called it "fleecing people for billions" former Trump associate Anthony Scaramucci said it was dictator-level "corruption" and ex-Coinbase Global executive Balaji Srinavasan called it a "lottery" with no wealth creation.

Of course, they're right to take a dim view of the Trump memecoin'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 Trump'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?

Yet perhaps the crypto world's pivot against Trump speaks to deeper anxiety about the sustainability of the broader digital-asset rally, which has seen bitcoin's price gain more than 160 in one year amid wider institutional backing from the likes of BlackRock and the promise of friendlier regulation.