President-elect Trump launched his own cryptocurrency overnight and swiftly appeared to make more than $25 billion on paper for himself and his companies.
Why it matters: 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.
Crypto is not capital. Crypto is a poker table, where each player can only cash out what somebody else brought to the table. Buying those coins is placing a bet, not making an investment. No value is created in or by the system.
If Trump wants to buy a hamberder with his 25 billion in monopoly money he needs to find a sucker to buy the monopoly money from him at the asking price. If that sucker want to buy a Banana with it, they need to find the next sucker. It’s a pyramid game, and the farther you get from the top the more likely you’ll end up the one without a next sucker below you.
The reason libertarians and similar nutjobs clamor for governments going into crypto is that those governments with their virtually bottomless pockets would then become the ultimate suckers. They’d be boosting the prices for all former holders of that coin, who could then cash out big by selling to the governments. Something they currently can’t do in big volumes without tanking prices.
Unless the purpose of this venture is to get around laws that prevent bribes.