Trump launches meme coin, apparently makes more than $25 billion overnight

[highplainsdem]

Source: Axios

President-elect Trump launched his own cryptocurrency overnight and swiftly appeared to make more than $25 billion on paper for himself and his companies.

Why it matters: The stunning launch of $TRUMP caught the entire industry off-guard, and speaks to both his personal influence and the ascendancy of cryptocurrency in his administration.

It also speaks to the nature of the crypto industry that someone could have $25 billion worth of something that literally did not exist 24 hours previously.

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The meme website says 80% of the supply is held by Trump Organization affiliate CIC Digital, and a CIC co-owned entity called Fight Fight Fight LLC. ("Fight fight fight" is what Trump said after being shot at a rally in July.)

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Read more: https://www.axios.com/2025/01/18/trump-meme-coin-25-billion

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I posted about this in GD last night soon after it launched, when there was a lot of uncertainty over whether it was a real launch of new crypto by Trump, or a scam by someone who'd hacked his Truth Social and X accounts.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219915178

And now Trump has increased his own wealth by billions overnight.

Trump's plans for crypto include ordering a government stockpile be created: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/bitcoin-soars-past-100000-ahead-of-possible-trump-early-action-on-cryptocurrency

Trump also promised that as president he’ll make sure the U.S. government stockpiles bitcoin, much like it already does with gold. At the bitcoin conference earlier this summer, Trump said it the U.S. government would keep, rather than auction off, the billions of dollars in bitcoin it has seized through law enforcement actions.

Crypto advocates have posted a draft executive order online that would establish a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” as a “permanent national asset” that would be administered by the Treasury Department through its Exchange Stabilization Fund. The draft order calls for the Treasury Department to eventually hold at least $21 billion in bitcoin.

Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming previously proposed legislation mandating the U.S. government stockpile bitcoin, which advocates said would help diversify government holdings and hedge against financial risks. Critics say bitcoin’s volatility make it a poor reserve.

Creating such a stockpile would also be a “giant step in the direction of bitcoin becoming normalized, becoming legitimatized in the eyes of people who don’t yet see it as legitimate,” said Zack Shapiro, an attorney who is head of policy at the Bitcoin Policy Institute.