American presidents throughout history have broken with precedent before, but for a president-elect to launch a crypto “meme coin” days before his inauguration is really out there on the bleeding edge of the untested. As Donald Trump returns to the White House following his 2024 electoral victory, his association with a meme coin launch represents an unprecedented convergence of presidential influence and speculative finance. Even Andrew Jackson, who had a notorious appetite for gambling and financial risk, never displayed such brazenness as to promote an investment product on the eve of assuming office.
These are purely speculative instruments, unapologetically existing for no reason other than to enrich their creators.
While the value of established cryptocurrencies remains a subject of considerable debate among economists and technologists, other cryptocurrencies often peddle a narrative justification centered on utility. Proponents of bitcoin, for instance, suggest its potential as a digital analog to gold, or as a payment network; ethereum adherents point to so-called smart contracts. Whether such proposed applications ultimately prove viable remains highly questionable, and many critics argue that these narratives are fundamentally incoherent.
Meme coins, in contrast, dispense with the pretense of utility or narrative: These are purely speculative instruments, unapologetically existing for no reason other than to enrich their creators.
The mechanics of meme coins are remarkably straightforward: Initial purchasers acquire tokens at a nominal cost. Publicity intensifies, often fueled by social media amplification and a fear of being left behind, and prices spike. Early investors can then sell their holdings to later buyers at a profit. This dynamic, however, is inherently unsustainable, and the inevitable result is that subsequent investors are left holding largely valueless digital tokens that are untethered from any asset or income. It’s a mathematical certainty that a majority of participants will incur financial losses — the only question is the precise distribution of those losses. The value of these tokens rests solely on their ability to induce successive purchasers to pay an inflated price, a characteristic that invites comparison to pyramid schemes without the overt promise of guaranteed returns.
The launch of the Trumps’ tokens just before the inauguration represents a troubling development in the realm of money in politics. It’s shocking to have the presidential office even tangentially connected to such a nakedly speculative financial undertaking at such a sensitive political moment. This timing seems to suggest that supporting the candidate and engaging in a risky financial gamble are somehow connected, a notion that raises significant ethical concerns about the influence of personal financial interests on political decision-making and could potentially lead to conflicts of interest.
The dangers surrounding meme coins arise not so much because they exist in a regulatory vacuum, but because some crypto businesses operate with a cynical disregard for the laws we already have. Traditional financial markets have rules that forbid predatory offerings and market manipulation and that require disclosures, but many crypto operations openly flout these regulations, knowing that regulators are often too underresourced to enforce them. The result is a perfect storm for market manipulation, with concentrated ownership and coordinated buying campaigns conducted openly on social media platforms.
This pattern of market behavior is eerily reminiscent of the “robber baron” era of the late 19th century. Before the advent of securities laws, powerful figures amassed fortunes through schemes that often left ordinary investors in financial ruin. That era, characterized by limited regulatory oversight, allowed many predatory schemes and abuses that ultimately led to the modern securities regulations that govern traditional finance today.
What’s particularly fraught about the present circumstance is the combination of a historically familiar pattern with the speed and reach of digital technology, and now the direct association with a presidential transition. Potential buyers may not understand that they’re not investing in anything real — they’re merely buying tokens in a digital game of hot potato, where the only way to win is to pass their holdings to someone else at a higher price before the music stops.
The overall rise of crypto reflects a deeper nihilism in American culture — a collective rejection of fundamental value and the premise of markets. The overall rise of crypto reflects a deeper nihilism in American culture — a collective rejection of fundamental value and the premise of markets. In this worldview, if investing is a rigged game, why not embrace the absurdity? Such a cynical perspective approaches markets as a mere casino where the only things that matter are momentum and hype. That this mindset has become intertwined with the presidency, with tokens backed by nothing but vanity and political loyalty, reveals a profound loss of faith in institutions and the very concept of value itself. For the public, the message should be unequivocal: Meme coins, irrespective of their branding or timing, are not legitimate investments. They are speculative gambles, more like lottery tickets than financial assets. When draped in political symbolism and launched at times of heightened public attention, they become an especially dangerous proposition: a chimera of political devotion and financial recklessness that is fraught with moral hazard and does not serve the public interest. The launch of a personal meme coin by a president represents a dangerous confluence of political power and speculative finance that would be bad on its own. More fundamentally — and more troubling — it represents a betrayal of the duty of the office. Using the highest office of the land to promote a financial product designed to transfer wealth from the public to a private individual undermines the institutional integrity of the presidency itself. The Trump meme coin may be just the latest chapter in this ongoing story, but it signals a troubling new direction in the use of political influence for financial gain.
Stephen Diehl
Stephen Diehl is a software engineer who often write about software, technology, and the future. 
