The Trump memecoin (a financial asset that didn't exist on Friday afternoon) now accounts for about 89% of convicted felon Donald Trump's net worth.
The coin (technically a token that's issued on the Solana blockchain) has massively enriched Trump personally, enabled a mechanism for the crypto industry to funnel cash to him, and created a volatile financial asset that allows anyone in the world to financially speculate on Trump's political fortunes.
Sunday morning (after another massive overnight rally) Trump's crypto holdings were worth as much as $58 billion on paper, enough -- with his other assets -- to make him one of the world's 25 richest people. Some 200 million of the 1 billion total coins have already been released and are being actively traded. The rest, which are owned by Trump-controlled entities, will be able to be sold at various points over the next three years, starting in April.
While the Biden administration broadly took the view that memecoins like $TRUMP are securities subject to SEC regulation, the incoming Trump administration has pledged to be much more crypto-friendly and to regulate such coins with a light or nonexistent touch.
The emoluments clause of the Constitution, written in 1787, hardly envisaged a world where a president could conjure billions of dollars of wealth out of nowhere just by endorsing a meme. In the present day, it's impossible to track who's going to be buying this coin over the next three years and thereby directing their money directly at Trump. Given the Supreme Court's expansive view of presidential immunity, there's a good chance that any such action will be deemed lawful.
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