Donald Trump Makes $1 Million from Meme Coin Named After Him

A crypto memecoin project has sent former U.S. President Donald Trump an unexpected million-dollar bonus thanks to a marketing gimmick, one that turned out to be quite lucrative. By riding the recent memecoin resurgence wave, Trump’s promotional token airdrop from little-known token TRUMP is now valued at over $1 million.

Memecoin Leverages Trump’s Brand Appeal

In August 2022, a Maga project launched a Trump-themed memecoin called TRUMP. The token’s name, logo featuring Trump’s distinctive hairstyle, and patriotic branding aimed to leverage Trump’s popularity to attract public interest.

As a promotional tactic, the creators sent nearly 580,000 TRUMP tokens to Trump’s publicly known wallet address without his permission or involvement.

At the time, the coins amounted to less than $6,000 in value but still generated headlines. With meme coins skyrocketing industry-wide in recent weeks, the project’s gambit has paid off handsomely from the price surge.

TRUMP Token Price Explodes

Shortly after Maga airdropped tokens to Trump last summer, the TRUMP token started trading at a range between $0.00025 and $0.00028 per coin. This valued Trump’s promotional cache at approximately $5,700.

The coin price spiked during a few volatile trading days in October when memecoin mania started gripping crypto markets. However, the biggest gains occurred in the past two weeks, perfectly aligning with the freshest memecoin frenzy.

From January 14th to January 22nd, the TRUMP token has vaulted from $0.23 to $1.99 per coin. This translates to Trump’s untouched hoard soaring to around $1.15 million at peak valuation.

As typical with hyper-volatile crypto assets, the token has shed nearly 50% of its value since. However, Trump’s promotional tokens still amount to $780K and it remains to be seen if it rises or falls from here.

Unless he opts to cash out soon, Trump ultimately has the memecoin boom’s resurgence to thank for his sudden 7-figure memecoin position.

Memecoin Investing Remains High Risk

While Trump’s inadvertent memecoin profits are an entertaining industry anecdote highlighting the sector’s lucrative potential, retail investors must approach hyper-speculative assets cautiously.

As TRUMP’s collapse from the all-time highs proved, memecoin values often prove unsustainable long-term. While massive gains occur during sporadic rallies, prolonged bear markets see most novelty crypto tokens lose most of their peak value.

Unless clear utility cases and real-world demand emerge, memecoins chiefly offer temporary pumps followed by drastic value destruction after early buyers have exited. Without sufficient development and integration over time, projects like TRUMP rely on hype alone, making prolonged holdings extremely risky.

Conclusion

The stunning million-dollar rise of Donald Trump’s one-time $5K worth TRUMP token airdrop makes for a captivating crypto success story. However, beyond the eye-popping headline returns, investors should view volatile meme assets like TRUMP as predominantly tools to generate short-term trading profits rather than as long-term holdings.

Unless Trump swiftly sells the entirety of his unexpected token endowment, he could find his seven-figure promotional tokens back below $10K sooner rather than later. For most retail buyers, lacking Trump’s advantage of a free token position, the likelihood of losses grossly outweighs achieving similar parabolic gains over the long run.

With a background in journalism, Ritika Sharma has worked with many reputed media firms focusing on general news such as politics and crime. She joined The Coin Republic as a reporter for crypto, and found a great passion for cryptocurrency, Web3, NFTs and other digital assets. She spends a lot of time researching and delving deeper into these concepts around the clock, and is a strong advocate for women in STEM.