Trump Drops New Meme Coin, Raising Conflict Of Interest Concerns

It's a meme coin named $TRUMP.

President-elect Donald Trump launched another cryptocurrency, a meme coin named $TRUMP just ahead of his inauguration which some are critical of, calling attention to a potential conflict of interest.

According to The Wall Street Journal, this marks the second foray into cryptocurrency by Trump, following the launch of World Liberty Financial alongside his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump in 2024.

Per their reporting, 80% of Trump’s new meme coin’s supply is owned by Fight, Fight, Fight and CIC Digital, which is affiliated with the Trump Organization. Because of this some say could create a potential conflict of interest. As with his last administration, national security concerns regarding both the President-elect and Elon Musk have been raised.

In November 2024, Robert Weissman, the co-president of Public Citizen, a watchdog group, issued a statement regarding Trump’s potential conflicts of interest in cryptocurrency, and the potential for average investors to lose big when the deregulation bubble inevitably pops.

“…the biggest conflict of all, unsurprisingly, concerns Donald Trump himself: The Trump family is connected to a crypto project, World Liberty Financial, that is built entirely around the Trump brand, promises the family enormous payouts if the project succeeds. Cryptocurrency values soared after Trump’s win and crypto investors have every reason to anticipate deregulation under Trump,” Weissman said.

Weissman concluded, “But buyer beware: Investors should not view deregulation as a good thing. There may well be a short-term bump in crypto values because of the vibes of the election. But over the medium and long term, investor protections help investors. Deregulation is sure to fuel bubbles that will eventually burst and cause huge losses for small crypto investors.”

According to Larisa Yarovaya, an associate professor of finance and the director of the Center for Digital Finance at Southhampton Business School, although the crypto bubble looks promising, given Trump’s explicit promises to be the cryptocurrency president, the bubble could burst at any moment.

“Strong political and government endorsements of crypto, paradoxically, pose a threat to its decentralisation ethos and could ultimately undermine the appeal of crypto assets,” Yarovaya wrote in a statement to The Guardian earlier in January. “If, in 2025, the SEC turns a blind eye, consumers could be left entirely unprotected from financial losses – especially when another meme coin bubble bursts.”

The meme coin’s website, however, has posted the following disclaimer, presumably to cover its legal bases despite its status as a Trump-owned entity.

“Trump Memes are intended to function as an expression of support for, and engagement with, the ideals and beliefs embodied by the symbol “$TRUMP” and the associated artwork, and are not intended to be, or to be the subject of, an investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any type. GetTrumpMemes.com is not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign or any political office or governmental agency.”