The cryptocurrency industry is a fan of incoming President Donald Trump, but Trump’s new meme coin is a different story.
The new $TRUMP coin has sparked criticism from crypto executives who expect their sector to be treated seriously under the new administration.Bloomberg reported Monday (Jan. 20).
Trump debuted the Hint Friday (Jan. 17) with his wife Melania introduced her own meme coin the next day.
The meme coin sector is divisive because it fueled criticism that the crypto industry is frivolous and riskysaid the report. Meme coins depend on the momentum of social media which can disappear quickly if it occurs.
Balaji Srinivasanan angel investor and former chief technology officer of Coinbaseposted on social platform X that meme coin is a zero-sum “lottery” where “the price eventually crashes and the end buyers lose everything.”
Memecoin is a zero-sum* lottery.
There is no creation of wealth. Each buy order is simply matched with a sell order. And after an initial spike, the price eventually crashes and the end buyers lose everything.
* This is actually a negative value when the platform cuts.
— Balaji (@balajis) January 19, 2025
In a separate post, SkyBridge Capital builder Anthony Scaramucci pointed out that the launch of Melania coin causing the Trump coin to fall. Trump’s coin is valued up to $15 billion in one point, but briefly dropped to less than $8 billion when his wife’s coin debutedBloomberg reported.
The launch of the Melania coin caused Trump to crash. Elon is right, we live in a simulation. Which kids coins are the best? It’s the day before the inauguration as the leader of the free world and this is what Trump is focused on. Tell you everything you need to know.
– Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) January 19, 2025
Scaramucci has been an outspoken critic of Trump, but he served for 10 days in July of 2017 as communications director for the first Trump White House before being fired.
In X also, Gabor Gurbacsformer head of digital asset strategy at the investment provider VanEck and founder of PointsVillesaid the Trump meme coins “cost the US, the presidency and his family a lot of credibility.”
Gurbacs wrote that the fallout from the launches “hasn’t started” and called on the president-elect to fire his crypto advisers.
Trump needs to fire his crypto advisors, top to bottom and replace them with people who know what they are doing. Memecoins cost the US, the presidency and his family a lot of credibility and the consequences have not yet begun.
— Gabor Gurbacs (@gaborgurbacs) January 20, 2025
The crypto industry is banking on the idea that Trump will be friendlier to their sector than his predecessor, with a price of bitcoin hitting a record high before the inauguration.
Last week saw reports that Trump plans to appoint cryptocurrency as a national priority and will issue an executive order shortly after taking office directing government agencies to work closely with the crypto industry.
Meanwhile, PYMNTS wrote last week about the role of stablecoins on serves as a bridge between the traditional world of finance and the cryptocurrency industry.
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