Love Trump? Now You Can Buy His Meme Coin.

0:05The Friday before inauguration, the crypto industry convened in D.C. for a party. They called it the crypto ball. Our colleague Vicky Huang talked to some of the attendees. Who was there? Everyone. A lot of the most high-profile people in crypto were there, such as Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, the co-founders of Crypto Exchange Gemini, the Winkovoss brothers, and some of the most high-profile political figures. Trump's pick for Treasury secretary was there. So was the Speaker of the House. Guests noshed on beef tenderloin and tuna tartare. They snapped up free swag like Make Bitcoin Great Again hats and Trump-style golden slippers.

0:55Snoop Dogg performed.

0:59What were they celebrating? They were celebrating the inauguration of President Trump. But beyond that, it was more about how President Trump has become the crypto industry's biggest cheerleader. On the campaign trail, Trump embraced crypto. He promised industry-friendly regulations and pledged to start a national Bitcoin reserve. And the crypto industry embraced Trump right back, channeling contributions to him and other crypto-friendly candidates. Now, at the crypto ball, it seemed like all that effort and cash was about to pay off. Here's Trump's crypto czar, David Sachs, on stage. The reign of terror against crypto is over.

1:52And the beginning of innovation in America for crypto has just begun. But while they were partying, Trump, the champion of the crypto industry, was making a surprise move. So at 9 p.m., President Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, that he was launching a cryptocurrency. The president-elect had just launched his own coin. And this move would roil the crypto community.

2:33Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Kate Leinbaugh. It's Thursday, January 23rd.

2:46Coming up on the show, why Trump's cryptocurrency has shaken the crypto world.

3:01After the crisis begins not the calm, but the change. It's going again, but different than before. Who scheidert and still is on the way, is different. That show us the patients, the experts and experts. In Folge 5 of Endstation Insolvenz is about how can a real power entstehen. Now listen to the podcast channel Gute Geschäfte von Kreditreform. Everywhere, where it's podcasts.

3:35The coin that Trump launched last Friday wasn't just any kind of cryptocurrency. It's what's known in the crypto community as a meme coin. What is a meme coin? A meme coin is a type of cryptocurrency that essentially built to generate a few laughs. It's usually based on a meme such as a phrase, an image. Like little, like viral internet thingamajiggers. Nuggets, yes. How many of these meme coins have you seen in the past few years? There have been millions of meme coins created. According to Vicky, the most popular usually feature dogs. And that's no surprise because the first and most successful meme coin is Dogecoin, a Shiba Inu-themed cryptocurrency that was started out as a joke but took off after it received a lot of endorsement from the billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.

4:48In its heyday in 2021, Dogecoin was worth over$80 billion. Unsurprisingly, it spawned many imitators. So as a result, you have Shiba Inu coin, you have baby Dogecoin, you have dog with hat coin, which is based on a meme of a Doge wearing a pink beanie. And as a serious reporter for The Wall Street Journal, you're covering these things. It's a fun job.

5:27How do you make one of these coins? They have become extremely easy to create. Say if you want to create a meme coin, you can go onto one of these platforms, websites, and you click a button and they ask you to put in the names, the ticker, some other basic information. And then you pay a fee, and then your meme coin is created within minutes. Because they're so popular and easy to make, meme coins have also become a vehicle for scams. One of these scams is sometimes called a rug pull. Basically, someone launches a new coin, they hype it up, convince other people to buy it, and then they sell, raking in the profits and tanking the coin price for everyone else.

6:19All of which is to say, meme coins don't have the greatest reputation. Okay, so tell us about this coin that Trump launched last Friday, the night of the crypto ball. So the night of the crypto ball, Trump launched a meme coin that trades under the ticker Trump. And the meme itself is a picture of President Trump with his fist in the air, with the words fight, fight, fight in the background. Trump announced the launch on his Truth Social platform. He posted, quote, get your Trump now. The price of the token immediately soared. In the first hours of trading, one Trump coin could go for$7,$10, and then$20.

7:09But as more people jumped in, the price climbed even higher to$30,$40, then$70. On Sunday, the Trump coin had an almost$15 billion market cap. For the people who bought this coin, why did they do it? Why did they think it was a good move? I thought these kinds of coins are jokes. A lot of traders rushed into the Trump coin because they see a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make money. And a lot of them did. If we look at social media, a lot of traders who put in money, even on Saturday, Hours after Trump launched the token and sold on Sunday, they've been able to make a really quick, big gain within just a few hours.

8:08What did the surging price of this coin mean for Trump himself? So the hot take is that for President Trump, this means that he's now one of the biggest crypto billionaires. Trump is now a crypto billionaire because entities associated with him own 80 percent of the supply of Trump coins. The organizations behind the coins are CIC Digital, which is an affiliate of the Trump organization. and Fight Fight Fight LLC, which is co-owned by CIC Digital. But Trump's ballooning crypto wealth was about to receive a hit. And from an unlikely source, his wife, Melania Trump. On Sunday afternoon, the first lady launched her own cryptocurrency, her own meme coin.

9:11The incoming first lady also announced her coin on Truth Social. She posted, quote, you can buy Melania now. And the meme of her is a picture of her smiling while clasping her hand in a prayer position. Melania's token soon soared in value as well. However, this caused a crash of almost 50 % in the Trump token. Wait, wait a second. Her stock goes up, so his goes down? Yes. I say stock, but I mean coin. Her coin goes up, so his goes down? Yes. The launch of her coin caused his coin to crash. Why? Is that because they like Melania more? I don't think so. I think they like any new opportunity to make money on the newest, hottest thing.

10:06The problem, according to traders Vicky talked to, was that the buyers for Trump's coin and Melania's coin overlapped. The same people who were looking to make a quick buck on Trump's coin now wanted Melania's token. Traders basically had to sell the Trump tokens in order to buy the newest coin because they see this upside of making profits.

10:37Some crypto fans applauded Trump's decision to release a coin, saying it brought energy, attention, and new users to digital currencies. Others just bragged on X about their gains, like media entrepreneur Dave Portnoy. He said he made, quote, a quick milli, and then said he loved Trump's America. But the Trump and Melania coins also generated plenty of criticism. Cryptoskeptics called the coins a scam. And others worried that people might buy tokens as a way of currying favor with Trump. Has Trump responded to these concerns? Trump hasn't responded to these concerns. And the Trump organization hasn't responded or made any statements.

11:24At a press conference with the president Tuesday, a reporter referred to the launch of Trump's coin. Do you intend to continue selling products that benefit yourself personally while you're president? Well, I don't know if it benefited. I don't know where it is. I don't know much about it other than I launched it. I heard it was very successful. I haven't checked it. Where is it today? But Trump's coin has done more than fire up the usual critics. It's also drawn criticism from within the crypto community.

11:56That's next.

12:11The release of the Trump meme coin blindsided people in the crypto industry who've been working hard to repair crypto's reputation. Ever since the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX, the industry's reputation has been tarnished. It has been seen as this industry that's rife with fraud and scams and all kinds of scandals. However, especially over the past year, the industry has really been working hard to rebuild its image. And it has made a lot of progress on that front. Crypto is increasingly going mainstream. Major Wall Street firms now offer crypto funds. Crypto-friendly legislators won big in November's election.

12:59And in December, the price of Bitcoin hit$100 ,000 for the first time. They feel like they have finally arrived at this moment where crypto could be taken seriously. And then you have the soon-to-be president of the United States launching a cryptocurrency that's known for its speculative nature, extreme volatility, and high risks. It's kind of like proving to the world that crypto is speculation. Crypto is nothing more than speculation. It is a sort of boom and bust investment. Meme coins have such a dodgy reputation that when Trump first posted about his new coin, many in the crypto community assumed it was a scam and his accounts had been hacked.

13:49When it became clear that the coin launch was real, some in the industry raised concerns that it was a rug pull, that the Trump entities behind the coin could cash out, tanking the coin price for everyone else. A lot of critics of the coins think that the tokens have characteristics of a rag pull. So one characteristic that worry a lot of crypto watchers is that the Trump tokens, 80 % of it are controlled by insiders, the organizations related to the Trump organization. Heavy insider ownership is a red flag because it means that the insiders will be able to sell lots of tokens and crash or collapse the price of the token in a very quick period of time.

14:50On the other hand, Vicky says, cashing out would be tricky in practice because of how the Trump meme coin is structured. The one stipulation on the website associated with a Trump coin is that in total there are 1 billion Trump coins in existence. But only 200 million have been released since the token launched on Friday. And the rest of it, the 800 million tokens will be released over three years. So Trump can't just sell all the tokens immediately. They need to be sold over the course of three years. Yes. So that's a sign that it might not be a rug pull. Yes, that's a sign that it might not be a rug pull.

15:43What does this whole coin drama tell you about the crypto industry? It reflects this tension between two sides of crypto. On one side, there are these serious builders, executives, and investors who ardently hope that crypto will be seen as a real important industry that's driving innovation in America. On the other side, there are these fast money traders. They want numbers to go up and tokens to trade based on speculation, hype and excitement. The tension between the gamblers and the suits. Yes, that's a really good way to sum it up. Which side is Trump on? Trump is kind of in the middle of it all.

16:37On the one hand, he's courted the money and votes of deep-pocketed crypto investors and executives. On the other hand, he's beloved by these crypto traders who are overjoyed about his pledges to make U.S. the crypto capital of the planet that has caused token prices to skyrocket.

17:05What do you think it signals about what the next four years are going to be like? To a lot of people, it signals that the next four years is going to be quite tumultuous, that it might not be the golden age for digital assets or crypto renaissance that a lot of people in the industry had expected the next four years to be. that it might be a lot of ups and downs and a lot of unexpected events. The crypto industry could be in for a lot more surprises. As of Thursday afternoon, Melania's coin is worth about$470 million and Trump's coin, about$7 billion.

18:04That's all for today. Thursday, January 23rd. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. Additional reporting in this episode by Caitlin Ostroff. Audio in this episode from Rob Smith via Storyful. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.