Trump launched his personal memecoin just before inauguration, sparking widespread outrage?

Source: bitcoinist

Compiled by: Blockchain Knight

On the eve of officially becoming the 47th President of the United States, Trump stirred new waves in the crypto asset space. He launched a controversial memecoin named after himself.

The TRUMP memecoin, introduced on January 17, has sparked widespread discussion and is now facing backlash from critics who argue that this is a problematic venture for an incoming president.

As all eyes were on Trump's imminent takeover of the White House, the U.S. president-elect surprised the crypto community by launching his own memecoin on the Solana blockchain.

The move has triggered a storm of criticism, raising ethical concerns about a U.S. president launching his own memecoin.

Popular YouTuber Stephen Findeisen argued it was ill-timed for Trump to launch the memecoin just days before inauguration, especially considering he will appoint the new chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Key excerpts include:

"Launching a memecoin two days before Trump takes office is inappropriate."

"The new SEC/DOJ guaranteed not to sue."

"80% of tokens belong to insiders during the presidential term."

"Most of those losing money will be MAGA supporters, who aren't native to crypto."

Other critics questioned Trump’s new venture, suggesting it blurs the line between government and business.

Even Anthony Scaramucci, Trump's former aide, slammed the new memecoin, calling it "corrupt," and warned that Trump’s memecoin could negatively impact the broader digital asset market.

Adav Noti, executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, accused Trump of profiting from the presidency, saying the 'Trump memecoin' could be seen as profiteering.

Reports indicate approximately 80% of the tokens will be allocated to individuals within the incoming president's circle.

Noti stated: "This is essentially cashing in on the presidency—creating a financial instrument through which people can send money to the president's family tied to the office. It's unprecedented."

Some figures in the crypto industry also viewed the new memecoin negatively, calling it a "dirty" tactic.

Nick Tomaino, former Coinbase executive, wrote in a post: "Trump owns 80%, and launching hours before inauguration is predatory—many could get hurt."

Analysts reported that the new Trump-based token reached a $400 million market cap within just 15 minutes and pushed Solana’s native token SOL to a record high of $267.

Additionally, the deployment of the new Trump memecoin website is nearly identical to his previous NFT website.

Same Cloudflare settings, same Heroku deployment, same SSL certificate issuer. HTML structure is very similar to the prior one.

Market observers noted the memecoin’s value briefly approached $35 before stabilizing around $29, adding that some crypto traders have already realized profits.

One investor reportedly made between $50,000 and $1.1 million within hours.

However, with only 20% of the 1 billion TRUMP tokens in circulation—and the remaining 80% to be released over the next three years—it's too early to judge the token’s future trajectory.