I\u2019ve already written articles and talked at various lengths about Trump leaning into the crypto space to earn votes in this past election that in many ways was quite successful. At Bitcoin Nashville this past summer, in an effort to garner support for his presidential candidacy, Trump said some notable things including that America will become \u201cthe crypto capital of the planet<\/a> and bitcoin superpower of the world,\u201d that he would fire Gary Gensler, and that he wants all remaining bitcoin to be made in America (concerning from a decentralized point of view, and highly implausible in reality). He also famously said that he would commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht<\/a> on Day one, which if he does I will be the first to give credit where credit is due. (For more on this I recommend watching the recent Reason documentary<\/a> on why Ross should be freed).<\/p>\n Crypto is Donald Trump\u2019s next frontier and combines several things he absolutely loves when it comes to business deals – Quick easy money, self-promotion, America first messaging, and little bureaucratic friction standing in his way. So, what is $TRUMP coin?\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s built on the Solana blockchain with a total supply of 1 billion tokens. Initially, 200 million tokens are available for circulation, while the remaining 800 million are held by CIC Digital, a Trump Organization affiliate, subject to a three-year lock-up period (which means the Trump family holds 80% of supply\u2026). Following its launch, the $TRUMP coin’s market cap surged, reaching approximately $6 billion. The coin’s price peaked at $33.7. The $TRUMP coin was marketed as a means for supporters to express their alignment with Trump’s ideals, rather than as an investment opportunity, which is hogwash for the pump and dump self-enrichment scheme that he is in my opinion immoral and unethical for creating, and investors (oops, guess we should say \u201cfans\u201d) are stupid for taking part in. <\/p>\n With inauguration on Monday, we\u2019re entering uncharted territory where it\u2019s likely Trump will issue Executive Orders relating to bitcoin and crypto, and now emboldened by the presidency, lack of legal worries, and supporters that I truly believe would be fine with whatever he does. As he famously quoted, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?\u201d <\/p>\n Some of these actions could be positive for the Bitcoin industry and advocates in the United States. But many of his actions could also equally benefit the broader crypto space that is rife with pump-and-dump scam coins and useless get rich quick schemes for wealthy insiders and people who have lobbied him throughout this last cycle. The pump and dump crypto landscape, his goofy coins and NFT\u2019s, make sense to Trump. In fact, I\u2019m betting he truly believes this is crypto\u2019s purpose, while knowing little about Bitcoin. Trump has repeatedly said he has \u201cfun with crypto<\/a>\u201d and ended his keynote address<\/a> at the Bitcoin Conference this past summer by saying \u201chave a good time with your bitcoin and your crypto and everything else that you’re playing with.\u201d Trump\u2019s experience in and views of crypto and bitcoin are around fun and making easy money. But with Bitcoin, many of us in the space are fighting for much more, which includes Bitcoin\u2019s many use-cases as censorship resistance digital currency, digital gold, a medium of exchange to use in self-custody and via privacy preserving tools, a powerful tool for human rights, and much more. This isn\u2019t a gamble for us\u2026it\u2019s the future of money that challenges the dollar and central bank rule. <\/p>\n If Trump really began to grasp this, based on his track record and previous statements on Bitcoin, he\u2019d be quite against this use of Bitcoin. Or perhaps he knows what Bitcoin is at some level, and would rather promote the \u201cfun\u201d meme coins, and maybe Bitcoin as digital gold, but nothing more. He did after all say in 2021<\/a>, quite clearly, “Bitcoin, it just seems like a scam. I don’t like it because it’s another currency competing against the dollar.” He added that he wanted the dollar to be “the currency of the world.\u201d (For more on this concept I\u2019d highly recommend following Mark Goodwin<\/a> and his work on the bitcoin dollar.) <\/p>\n Trump wants you to keep playing with crypto, funneling money to his organizations, but it\u2019s unlikely he\u2019d be a fan of anyone using bitcoin as a competitor to the dollar, circumventing traditional finance or using privacy tools (particularly if you are an adversary or from what he deems a left\/woke cause, which perhaps one day he\u2019d classify our nonprofit The Progressive Bitcoiner<\/a> as). I\u2019ll keep promoting Bitcoin as resistance money, and hope you\u2019ll join me, rather than endlessly gambling on crypto \u201cand everything else you\u2019re playing with.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/.image\/c_fit%2Ch_800%2Cw_1200\/MjEyMjMwOTA1NDIxMzc1MTA0\/ghivrldwaaa7ex3.jpg\")
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