Today's WSJ Editorial is pretty nasty—deservedly, one might say.
TRUMP coin is an exercise in ridiculous monetary experimentalism. Some call it "speculation," a bad feeling creeping down their as they do. 80% premined (though allegedly subject to "lock-up" for three years... good joke having a shitcoin carry any market value in three years' time), no "feature" or anything really worth existing—total joke.
Mr. Trump and his family have tried to cash in on the mania by minting Trump-branded coins. On Friday, as a private citizen soon to be President, Mr. Trump announced sales of his $TRUMP crypto token. “It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING!” he posted on X.com. Melania Trump debuted her own coin on Sunday. Step right up, Americans, you can’t lose betting on $TRUMP. But what happens when some inevitably do?
(Geo)politically, this might be a thing:
All of this creates flashing-red political risks and ethical conflicts. Start with who may be buying the tokens. A business or foreign official with interests before the federal government might seek to curry favor with Mr. Trump by announcing plans to buy millions of his token to pump up the price.
Like all money contenders (par for the course in "crypto-economics") you must engineer some sort of money demand. That is, there is no sustained reason for anybody to hold any just-made, worthless coin. The Terra/Luna stablecoin system fixed this brilliantly by straight-up bribing people "interest" on Terra coins "stacked" on their Anchor protocol—financed from god-knows-what. The WSJ editorial suggests that the money demand for $Trump coin is influence-seekers, foreign or domestic.
Modern kind of lobbying, if you will. Bad yes, but different than other forms of money-for-influence peddling? Corruption in the open, etc
This? EPIC!
If the token’s price drops, buyers who lose money could argue that Mr. Trump failed to make required securities disclosures about the risks. Democratic state Attorneys General could seek restitution for investors. If Mr. Trump hypes the token at a press conference, they might even charge him after he leaves office with market manipulation since he isn’t immune from prosecution for unofficial acts.
non-paywalled here: https://archive.md/nMvyc