Original title: Trump Likes Crypto: Just As Long As Its For Grifting
Original author: Trey Walsh, Bitcoin Magazine author; TPBPod executive director
Original translation: Ashley, BlockBeats
Editors note: The article analyzes Trumps motivation for getting involved in cryptocurrency and reveals his nature of profiteering through $TRUMP. The author criticizes the hype model of the coin, pointing out that Trump is more concerned with short-term profits and self-promotion while ignoring the core value of Bitcoin, and calls for attention to the decentralization and practical use of cryptocurrency rather than speculation.
The following is the original content (for easier reading and understanding, the original content has been reorganized):
Behind $TRUMP
When $TRUMP went live on Friday night, no one was surprised, or at least they shouldn’t have been. Trump has always thrown himself into ventures he thought would make money, using self-promotion as a tool, but they often ended in disaster. Some of these failed attempts include Trump Airlines, Trump Vodka, Trump Steaks, Trump University, Trump Magazine, Trump Plaza Hotel Casino, Trump Mortgage, and Trump Board Games. Now, cryptocurrencies are the new area he has decided to venture into.
I’ve written and spoken at length about Trump’s foray into crypto in an effort to win votes in the recent election. In many ways, the attempt has been quite successful. At the Bitcoin Nashville conference this summer, in an effort to drum up support for his presidential campaign, Trump made some notable statements, including declaring that the United States would become “the crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower,” promising to fire Gary Gensler, and wanting all remaining Bitcoin to be produced in the United States (which is both worrisome from a decentralization perspective and extremely unlikely in reality). He also said he would commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht on his first day in office. If he did, I’d be the first to give him the thumbs up. (For more on this, I recommend watching the recent documentary produced by Reason on why Ross should be released.)
Cryptocurrency is Trumps next battleground, combining several of his favorite elements in business dealings - quick and easy money, self-promotion, America First messaging, and little bureaucratic resistance. So, what is $TRUMP?
It is based on the Solana blockchain and has a total supply of 1 billion tokens. Initially, 200 million tokens were available for circulation, and the remaining 800 million were held by CIC Digital, an affiliate of the Trump Organization, and locked up for three years (that is, the Trump family holds 80% of the supply...). After the launch, $TRUMPs market value soared rapidly, and it was promoted as a means for supporters to express their consistency with Trumps ideas, rather than an investment opportunity. But in my opinion, this is nothing more than a self-profiting scam of high and low selling, an unethical behavior, and the investors (or fans) involved in it are extremely stupid.
Crypto Policy Outlook: Speculative Attributes vs. Core Values
As we approach the inauguration on Monday, we are entering uncharted territory, when Trump may sign executive orders related to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Today, he is more confident as president, has no legal worries, and has a group of supporters who I honestly think will support him in anything he does. As he famously said, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot a guy, and my voters wouldn’t abandon me, okay?”
Some of these actions may be good for the Bitcoin industry and supporters in the United States. But many of his actions may also be equally good for the broader cryptocurrency space, which is rife with pump-and-dump scam coins and get-rich-quick schemes designed for the wealthy and lobbyists. This hype-and-dump crypto environment, coupled with his joke coins and NFTs, fits Trump’s logic very well. In fact, I’d bet he actually believes that this is the purpose of cryptocurrencies, while knowing very little about Bitcoin. Trump has repeatedly stated that he’s “having fun playing with cryptocurrencies,” and at the end of his keynote speech at a Bitcoin conference this summer, he said, “Have fun with Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, or whatever else.”
Trumps experience and views on cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin revolve around fun and easy money. But for many in the Bitcoin space, we are fighting for something more, including Bitcoin as a censorship-resistant digital currency, digital gold, a medium of exchange for self-custody and privacy tools, a powerful tool for human rights, and more. This is not a gamble... this is the future of money that challenges the dollar and central bank rule.
If Trump really starts to understand this, based on his past record and statements about Bitcoin, he will most likely oppose this use of Bitcoin. Or, maybe he knows what Bitcoin is to some extent, and would rather promote the fun meme coin, perhaps including the concept of Bitcoin as digital gold, but not beyond that. After all, he made it clear in 2021: Bitcoin, it looks like a scam. I dont like it because its another currency that competes with the dollar. He also added that he wants the dollar to become the world currency. Regarding this concept, I highly recommend following Mark Goodwin and his research on Bitcoin Dollar.
Trump wants you to keep playing crypto and funneling money to his organization, but he’s unlikely to support anyone using Bitcoin to compete with the dollar, bypass the traditional financial system, or use privacy tools (especially if you’re an opponent of his or one of his perceived “left-wing/woke” causes, which he may one day classify our nonprofit Progressive Bitcoiners as). I’ll continue to promote Bitcoin as a resistance currency, hoping you’ll join in, rather than endlessly gambling on crypto “and whatever else you’re playing with.”
