About 80% of the tokens will be held by CIC Digital, which is affiliated with the Trump Organisation and a CIC co-owned business called Fight Fight Fight LLC, according to the token’s website – a reference to the attempt to assassinate Trump last summer.
The tokens held by insiders will start to be unlocked for sale over the next three to 12 months and available to be sold during Trump’s four-year term.
“Trump owning 80% and timing [the] launch hours before inauguration is predatory and many will probably get hurt by it,” venture capitalist Nick Tomaino wrote on X.
The launch took many in the crypto market by surprise, but Binance, Coinbase and Kraken, three of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, have all since announced plans to trade the Trump coin on their markets.
The Trump family have taken a growing interest in cryptocurrency. The US President-elect and his three sons have been promoting World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture set up by his long-time business partners and others, while Trump’s social media company unsuccessfully tried to buy Bakkt, a cryptocurrency trading venue.
On Saturday, Eric Trump described the Trump coin as “the hottest digital meme on Earth” and said World Liberty was “just getting started”.
Anthony Scaramucci, Trump’s former communications director turned critic, also hit out at the launch. “The Trump memecoin stuff is bad for the [crypto] industry. Don’t delude yourself,” he wrote on X.
A spokesperson for the Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jonathan Bixby, a crypto entrepreneur, said Trump’s memecoin was likely to be “the opening gun in what is called ‘the banana zone’,” a crypto trading term in which prices can suddenly surge.
“It gives legitimacy to these assets and it invites every celebrity to come back in and start promoting. These next couple of months are going to be wild.”
The price of Solana, the blockchain used by the Trump coin and many other memecoins, hit a record high of US$295 on Sunday. US regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission is due to make a ruling in the coming months on whether to permit US stock market funds to invest directly in Solana.
Written by: Philip Stafford in London
© Financial Times