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.
Crypto market cap does not equate the equivalent in dollars. When you create a new cryptocoin you can freely adjust the coin’s parameters such as the amount of available coins. So let’s say you “print” 1000 coins and sell one at $50. You now have a market cap of $50000.
It’s like pulling a rabbit out of a hat, with the notable distinction that the rabbit isn’t real. What makes it real is if enough suckers actually buy the coins with real dollars.
I wish more people understood this. Especially in the press, since its their job to educate everyone else.
Trading volume is what matters, not trading price. It’s only worth $25 billion if you can turn $25 billion of it into cash.
Unfortunately since banks still haven’t take wised up to this, and the wildcat crypto banks really haven’t, its likely still possible to pump a meme coin and then take out loans against the purported asset value. The bank is then left trying to repossess a pile of worthless memecoin when you fail to repay the loan.
In other words, in about a week we’ll want to start shorting this asset. Trump will have absolutely no hesitation to hyperinflate it just printing more trump coins. This man doesn’t do subtle or half measures, he goes big, and this is going to fail in a big way.