Among the most vocal critics of TRUMP, the controversial and wildly popular memecoin that Donald Trump launched on the eve of his 2025 inauguration, are the very crypto enthusiasts he may have hoped to court.
The TRUMP coin, launched on January 17, has seen a dramatic rise in price, climbing from $7 to an all-time high of $75 in 24 hours before settling at $38. Two days after TRUMP’s debut, MELANIA, a coin endorsed by First Lady Melania Trump, enter the market. Unlike its predecessor, MELANIA struggled, starting around $7 and falling below $4 after briefly rising to $14.
While both volatile trajectories of tokens appear to have some overnight millionairethey also drew sharp criticism from industry insiders.
The potential for conflicts of interest has become a focal point of the backlash, with critics – including members of the US senate – raising concerns that the token could allow individuals to gain favors. to the president.
Anthony Scaramucci, a former White House communications director turned crypto advocate, expressed his fears to X (formerly Twitter): “The most dangerous aspect of the Trump coin for the country is the following. Now, anyone around the world can effectively deposit money into the bank account of the President of the United States with just a few clicks. Every favor—whether geopolitical, corporate, or personal—is now open for sale.”
The decision to launch memecoin also sparked wider criticism within the crypto industry. While memecoins have become a prominent use case for blockchain technology, many developers argue that they fuel a get-rich-quick vision that destroying the credibility of the sector.
Gabor Gurbacs, founder of digital asset firm Pointsville, posted on X: “Trump needs to fire his crypto advisors, top to bottom.”
Nic Carter, a general partner at a crypto investment firm and a vocal supporter of Trump, was similarly scathing: “It’s absolutely ridiculous that he would do this,” he said Politico. “They are plumbing new depths of stupidity with the memecoin launch.”
Specific concerns was raised about coin distribution. 80% of TRUMP tokens are concentrated in a small number of blockchain addresses controlled by CNC Digital, the firm that launched the coin. Such concentration is a sign of potential “pump-and-dump” schemes, where insiders inflate the value of a token before selling their holdings, leaving other investors with losses.
There is no evidence that Trump’s team plans to “dump” its tokens. Nicolas Vaiman, CEO of blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps, told CoinDesk that the distribution of TRUMP tokens at least matches what is outlined on its official website. Additionally, insider-held tokens conform to prior distributions of Trump’s NFT trading cardwhich is also managed by CNC Digital, meaning the tokens may be reserved for the president’s NFT holders.
The same transparency doesn’t apply to MELANIA, however. About 89% of MELANIA tokens are controlled by insiders, according to Bubblemaps. The on-chain supply does not match an official distribution breakdown on the token’s website, which designates 35% of tokens for “public distribution” and “community.”
Vaiman said the First Lady’s memecoin cast a shadow over the original TRUMP coin: “TRUMP could be a statement from President Trump saying, ‘I endorse crypto,'” Vaiman said. “Melania launching her tokens seems like they just want to make as much money as they can out of it, and then forget about it. It gives a different flavor.”
It is not the first time the crypto community questioned Trump’s forays into the industry. In August, Trump and his children launched World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a platform that promised to develop a lending product. The project drew backlash for pre-selling tokens before delivering any tangible value, and critics were quick to point to the involvement of a former coach and memecoin promoter in the WLFI team, as well as the allocation of a percentage of presale proceeds directly to a Trump-controlled company.
The potential conflict-of-interest is also immediately apparent. Tron blockchain-founder Justin Sun has been recently WLFI’s largest investormaking a $30 million purchase of project tokens. In an X post on Tuesday, Donald Trump Jr. announced that World Liberty Financial will acquire some of Tron’s TRX tokens for its treasury.
In my view, if I made any money in cryptocurrency, all the credit goes to President Trump @realDonaldTrump. Both Trump Coin and World Liberty Financial certainly performed well.
— HE Justin Sun 🍌 (@justinsuntron) January 22, 2025
A crypto billionaire based in Hong Kong, Sun was previously charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission — a department that is now under Trump’s White House control.
