Trump’s describing his ultimately abandoned pursuit of the Reform Party’s presidential nomination in 2000:
Trump had inked a deal with Tony Robbins, the frighteningly upbeat motivational speaker, by which Robbins would pay Trump $1 million to give ten speeches at his seminars around the country. Crucially, Trump had timed his political stops to coincide with Robbins’ seminars, so that he was “making a lot of money” on those campaign stops. “It’s very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it,” Trump said. …
President-elect Trump launched his own cryptocurrency overnight and swiftly appeared to make more than $25 billion on paper for himself and his companies.
The stunning launch of $TRUMP caught the entire industry off-guard, and speaks to both his personal influence and the ascendancy of cryptocurrency in his administration.
- It also speaks to the nature of the crypto industry that someone could have $25 billion worth of something that literally did not exist 24 hours previously.
Friday night, while Trump was reportedly hosting a “Crypto Ball” for the industry in Washington, the president-elect launched his own meme-linked cryptocurrency.
- His website bills it as “the only official Trump meme.”
- While a number of Trump-branded meme coins popped up in recent months, none had his official endorsement until now.
According to CoinGecko price data, $TRUMP rose more than 600% overnight and was trading just over $32 as of 11 a.m. ET Saturday.
- That gives the coin a fully diluted market capitalization just north of $32 billion.
- The meme website says 80% of the supply is held by Trump Organization affiliate CIC Digital, and a CIC co-owned entity called Fight Fight Fight LLC. (“Fight fight fight” is what Trump said after being shot at a rally in July.)
- They are subject to a three-year unlocking schedule, which means they cannot dump all of their holdings at once.
The intrigue: Trump has warmly embraced cryptocurrency as a concept and an industry, to the point that he is reportedly considering designating it a “national priority” as soon as this week, per Bloomberg.
No politician has ever given their supporters a way to monetize that support — until now.
I’m speechless. Tom has more below…