Memes, Tokens, and Trump: A New Wave of Crypto Eccentricity
Date: 2024-08-15 Author: Gabriel Deangelo Categories: CRYPTO PAYMENTS
Last week, the crypto community’s attention was focused on memecoins associated with former US President Donald Trump and a new Solana-based platform, Pump.fun. Contrary to expectations, the platform’s reduced fees made memecoin trading less attractive to many. However, for observers, this event was a real show, with coins associated with Trump and his family at the center.
TRUMP.FUN: Memes and Politics
In early August, Donald Trump spoke at the Bitcoin Nashville conference, but the event quickly faded into the background. While forecasts on the Polymarket platform indicate that Trump is losing to Kamala Harris in the presidential race, his name continues to pop up in memecoin discussions.
The buzz around Trump intensified after his son, Eric Trump, tweeted about his passion for cryptocurrency and DeFi, promising a major announcement. Following this, a token called Restore the Republic (RTR) was launched on the Solana platform, which was presented as the official Trump token. Within hours, its market cap reached $155 million, but then Eric Trump warned users about fake tokens, stating that “the official Trump project has not been announced yet.” As a result, the price of RTR crashed by 95%.
Donald Trump Jr. also weighed in on the topic, emphasizing that while he loves how the crypto community supports his father, he urges caution and diligence when buying tokens. Interestingly, during Donald Trump’s recent conversation with Elon Musk on Spaces, neither of them mentioned cryptocurrency, causing the price of tokens with Trump-related names like MAGA Hat and Doland Tremp to drop.
Pump.fun and its impact
In parallel to these events, Pump.fun has eliminated its token issuance fees, which has led to a sharp increase in the number of memecoins launched. According to The Block, around 10,000 new tokens were launched on Pump.fun during the Trump-Musk session. Some traders expressed dissatisfaction, noting that the platform has become a home for many scams and is “no longer fun.” However, one commenter noted that watching what was happening on Pump.fun was like watching a news feed: “I don’t even need to watch ether when I have Pump.fun.”
So the last week has shown that the memecoin world remains extremely unpredictable and full of surprises, especially when figures like Donald Trump and his family get involved.
