Op-Ed: Trump $TRUMP crypto tanks at $75, down to $41, up to $45 and so on

Former US president Donald Trump’s (R) pick of former tech investor J.D. Vance as his running mate may indicate a shift in his policy on cryptocurrencies – Copyright AFP Jim WATSON

Like its namesake, Trump’s “meme coin” $TRUMP cryptocurrency clearly has its ups and downs. A meme coin is a coin named after a character. It’s said that Trump made $56 billion out of it, but it’s unclear who owns how much of what.

The key to this value is the conversion rate to the US dollar. It peaked at $74.59 yesterday. It’s now down at $45.75 after bouncing a bit at $41.

Ah, …yeah, sure. And the Tooth Fairy’s saving up for braces.

This is a classic speculation market.

TRUST NOTHING.

This currency also just happened to appear out of thin air.

It’s now that valuable.

People have already made money going in and out of it based on the hype.

It’s also classic crypto behavior. It’s not a currency of itself. It has to be bought and sold before it can be real money. You have to pass the parcel to someone who thinks the parcel is valuable.

Typically all Trump business ventures start with a lot of fanfare, much noise, and fizzle out after a while. People aren’t too sure if it’s a good move or a pure scam.

It might be a good move. The meme coin’s value is directly tied to him. So his continued existence is worth something to someone else.

The back end of Trump’s personal finances hasn’t changed much, though. The sheer amount of unfinished business was decades-long in the making and very costly.

The meme coin could be a valuable asset for creditors.

Nor is it even slightly clear who’s owed exactly what in the deeper debt context.

Being suddenly very much richer could be very bad situation for Trump. You can become a target. You get sued for much more. You’re more likely to be sued because people know you have that money, and they get more money that way.  

The other problem is the nature of crypto. $TRUMP has already had a peak and a 40% dive from that peak in a few days. (Don’t worry, somebody always makes money on a price dive. Just not you if you’re holding when it falls.)

Volatility could be very dangerous. Crypto values fluctuate often. You can’t use them as security unless someone’s prepared to accept them. If $TRUMP goes down to about $25, it’s losing on its start price, never mind margins.

While writing this thing, the price has moved up and down to $50 and back down below where it started. (See this link to track.) You could probably make more money betting on where it goes next.

It’s likely the big crypto party will continue for a while.

Then it’s back to Disaster Land. The Big Deregulation Drive will likely put huge amounts of private money in the blender by “freeing it up” from regulation, aka protective laws.

This guy can turn any success into a catastrophe. He’s done it so often.