(Bloomberg) – President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump’s new meme coin has sparked criticism from cryptocurrency industry executives who were hoping the next U.S. Republican administration would take the digital asset sector seriously.
Most Read Articles on Bloomberg
The president-elect announced the “Trump” token on Friday, and his wife Melania launched the “Melania” initiative on Sunday. The market value of the Trump memecoin at one point reached $15 billion, but briefly fell below $8 billion as first lady Melania Trump’s token gained attention, according to figures from aggregator CoinMarketCap.
The memecoin sector is packed with joke tokens like Dogecoin (DOGE-USD), which have little intrinsic value and high volatility, but are too frivolous and too risky for mainstream investors. It encourages criticism of the industry and polarizes opinion. Meme coins rely on social media tailwinds, and even when they blow, they can disappear quickly.
President Trump’s latest foray into cryptocurrencies has fueled speculation, with Bitcoin (BTC-USD) hitting a new record on Monday, hours before the inauguration, but some executives say He said it would do more harm than good to an industry trying to recover. Billions of dollars in windfall will soon be added to Trump-affiliated companies, at least on paper, just as the next president is said to be considering an executive order designating the asset class as a “national priority.” It was done.
Rob Haddick, general partner at Dragonfly Capital, a venture capital firm specializing in cryptocurrencies, said President Trump’s launch was “now clearly a disaster that we, as builders, must strive to recover from.” Deaf,” he said.
The Trump token’s market capitalization was just under $11 billion as of 11 a.m. in London, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
The industry was more keen to focus on the steps President Trump is expected to take after taking office to foster broader industry growth than on the two new meme coins. Crypto industry executives have spent the past two years dodging a crackdown by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission following the chaotic collapse of Sam Bankman Fried’s trading platform FTX.
Balaji Srinivasan, an angel investor and former chief technology officer of US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global, Inc. (COIN), said in a post on “Eventually, the price will collapse and the last buyer loses.” all. “
story continues