Among the most vocal critics of TRUMP, the controversial and wildly popular memecoin launched by Donald Trump on the eve of his 2025 inauguration, are the crypto enthusiasts he might have hoped to court.
The TRUMP coin, launched on January 17, saw a dramatic price rise from $7 to an all-time high of $75 in 24 hours before settling at $38. Two days after TRUMP’s debut, MELANIA, a play endorsed by First Lady Melania Trump, entered the market. Unlike its predecessor, MELANIA struggled, starting around $7 and dropping below $4 after a brief high at $14.
Although the volatile trajectories of both tokens appear to have spawned millionaires overnight, they have also drawn heavy criticism from industry insiders.
The potential for conflicts of interest has been the focus of backlash, with critics – including members of the US Congress – raising concerns that the token could allow individuals to curry favor with the president.
Anthony Scaramucci, former White House communications director turned crypto advocate, expressed his apprehensions on X (formerly Twitter): “The most perilous aspect of the Trump coin for the nation is the following. Now anyone in the world can deposit money into the bank account of the President of the United States with just a few clicks. Every favor, whether geopolitical, commercial or personal, is now openly for sale.
The decision to launch a memecoin also sparked wider criticism within the crypto industry. While memecoins have become an important use case for blockchain technology, many developers say they reinforce a get-rich-quick perception that undermines the industry’s credibility.
Gabor Gurbacs, founder of digital assets company Pointsville, posted on X: “Trump needs to fire his crypto advisors, top to bottom. »
Nic Carter, general partner of a crypto investment firm and staunch Trump supporter, was equally scathing: “It’s absolutely absurd that he would do this,” he said. Policy. “They’re diving into new depths of stupidity with the launch of Memecoin.”
Specific concerns were raised regarding the distribution of the play. 80% of TRUMP tokens are concentrated in a small number of blockchain addresses controlled by CNC Digital, the company that launched the token. Such concentration is a hallmark of potential “pump and dump” schemes, in which insiders inflate the value of a token before selling their holdings, leaving other investors with losses.
There is no evidence that Trump’s team plans to “dump” its chips. Nicolas Vaiman, CEO of blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps, noted to CoinDesk that the distribution of TRUMP tokens was at least as reported on its official website. Additionally, the insider-held tokens align with prior distributions of Trump’s NFT trading cards, which were also managed by CNC Digital, meaning the tokens can be reserved for the president’s NFT holders.
The same transparency does not apply to MELANIA, however. Around 89% of MELANIA tokens are controlled by insiders, according to Bubblemaps. The on-chain supply does not match the official distribution breakdown on the token’s website, which projected 35% of tokens for “public distribution” and “community.”
Vaiman said the First Lady’s memecoin cast a shadow over TRUMP’s original coin: “TRUMP could have been a statement from President Trump saying, ‘I approve of crypto,'” Vaiman said. “Melania, throwing her chips, feels like she just wants to make as much money as possible from this and then forget about it. It gives a different flavor to it.
This is not the first time the crypto community has questioned Trump’s forays into the industry. In August, Trump and his sons launched World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a platform that promised to develop a lending product. The project received backlash for preselling tokens before providing tangible value, and critics were quick to point out the involvement of a former dating coach and memecoin promoter on the WLFI team, as well that allocating a percentage of pre-sale proceeds directly to a Trump-controlled company.
The potential for a conflict of interest also became immediately apparent. Justin Sun, founder of the Tron blockchain, recently became the largest investor in WLFI, purchasing $30 million in tokens from the project. In an article on Tuesday, Donald Trump Jr. announced that World Liberty Financial would acquire some of Tron’s TRX tokens for its treasury.
In my opinion, if I made money from cryptocurrency, all credit goes to President Trump. @realDonaldTrump. Both Trump Coin and World Liberty Financial are expected to perform exceptionally well.
– HE Justin Sun 🍌 (@justinsuntron) January 22, 2025
A Hong Kong-based crypto-billionaire, Sun was previously accused of fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission – a department now under the control of the Trump White House.
