As a second inauguration day beckons for President Trump and he rolls out his first executive orders, the launch of his memecoin $Trump days before has shown his engagement with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in plain sight: the priority seeming to be the enrichment of himself and his circle, rather than any meaningful policy engagement with the more prominent themes present in Bitcoin, such as the effect on state power, the interplay between stablecoins and the existing global financial system, and the bottoms-up demand for independent custody and ownership of funds in relative privacy. Is President Trump’s interest in “crypto” about individual liberty and privacy or a set of tokens designed to enrich his family?
Even before he was inaugurated, the President posted about the new memecoin on his social media channels, encouraging his followers to purchase it. The response was atmospheric, with the memecoin achieving a market capitalization of more than a few billion dollars within a day. The President’s wife also launched a memecoin with a very similar mechanic. The landing pages for both contain very similar content, hinting at some collaboration between these two efforts.
The page for $Trump specifies that companies affiliated with the Trump family will own 80% of the issuance within three years. “CIC Digital LLC, an affiliate of The Trump Organization, and Fight Fight Fight LLC collectively own 80% of the Trump Cards, subject to a 3-year unlocking schedule.” Fight Fight Fight LLC is, in turn, owned in part by CIC Digital LLC, forming part of a circle of corporations tied directly to The Trump Organization, which serves as a holding company for all of President Trump’s business investments – and is owned by him as well as being led on the executive level by his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.
This 80% mark is a much higher percentage of centralized ownership than many other crypto tokens available started with – which typically have ownership stakes to the originating foundation below 50% (or, in the case of Bitcoin, of course, 0%). And memecoins, in general, have seen disastrous losses, with the top ten averaging a loss shy of 64% by September 2024.
The issuance of Trump memecoins follows earlier engagement with World Liberty Financial, in which the President is listed as “Chief Crypto Advocate,” with many of his family joining him as “Web3 Ambassadors”. The legal notice at the end of the paper specifies that the President is promoting the token of World Liberty Financial in return for having a company associated with the President (DT Marks DEFI LLC) receiving 22.5 billion $WLFL tokens – and up to 75% of the net protocol revenues. The World Liberty Financial token sold out the initial sale of its token and is increasing its markup by 230%.
The President has appointed one of the co-founders of World Liberty Financial, Steven Witkoff, as the United States Special Envoy to the Middle East. Steven Witkoff’s sons are some of the co-founders of World Liberty Financial, showing how quickly the line between business and political power blends in the new Trump administration. The two tokens issued by the President and his First Lady are on the Solana blockchain – where Trump’s chief crypto advisor and major fundraiser, David Sacks, is an investor through Multicoin Capital.
For generations, the hallmarks of American power have included a somber reflection on the weight of state power and the importance of separating personal profit from state duty. Though often falling short in practice over a long line of Presidents, the Founding Fathers and many institutions that have evolved in the United States aspired to names like Cincinnatus and Cato the Younger.
In two crises, Cincinnatus was appointed dictator of Rome: after the crises were concluded, he was reputed to have retired to a simple life on his farm. Cato the Younger believed in the Roman Republic so much over tyranny that he took his own life rather than accept Julius Caesar’s pardon and the beginnings of the Roman Empire. In crafting a campaign slogan around the idea of “draining the swamp”, perhaps President Trump means to aspire to this ideal – that special interests and personal profit should not come before duty to country. Yet, his actions with his tokens show something entirely different – refilling the swamp – or perhaps creating a new one.
