Trump and Melania release a pair of meme coins before their inauguration, raising serious ethical concerns ⚠
The new couple launched a pair of cryptocurrencies in the lead-up to the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, which are already worth billions of dollars on paper. But the timing of Trump's cryptocurrency launch, just days before he took office and promised to be a cryptocurrency-friendly president, has ethics experts and even some in the cryptocurrency industry concerned.🔥
Melania Trump launched her cryptocurrency MELANIA in a social media post on Sunday, sending the value of her husband's cryptocurrency TRUMP, announced two days earlier, plummeting.🔥
Meme coins are a type of highly volatile cryptocurrency inspired by internet trends or popular culture. They carry no intrinsic value but their prices can rise or fall sharply.🔥
Both currencies are traded on the Solana blockchain. The value of the Trump meme coin skyrocketed over the weekend and was trading at more than $70 by Sunday afternoon, according to CoinGecko.🔥
However, the president-elect's coin fell to $40 after Melania unveiled her own coin. It has since recovered from some of those losses and was trading at around $60 early Monday. According to CoinGecko, $MELANIA was trading at over $12 early Monday.🔥
TRUMP is the first cryptocurrency endorsed by the incoming president, who has previously criticized Bitcoin as “built on air.”🔥
Trump received strong support from the cryptocurrency industry in this election after he embraced cryptocurrencies and promised America the “crypto capital of the planet.”🔥
Richard Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota, told CNN: “I think it is very dangerous for the people who are supposed to be regulating financial instruments to invest in these instruments at the same time. There is no precedent for a head of state launching a personal cryptocurrency.” 🔥
Painter, the George W. Bush administration's chief ethics lawyer, said the launch of meme coins just hours before the inauguration raises "serious ethical questions about conflicts of interest."🔥
“The value of the coin may be affected by his actions or policies once he takes office, especially since Trump has said he will be friendlier toward cryptocurrencies, which will likely inflate the value of the coin at least temporarily,” Painter said.🔥
While executive branch employees must follow criminal conflict-of-interest laws that prohibit them from participating in matters that affect their own financial interests, the law does not apply to the president or vice president.🔥
The Trump coin was announced on Friday, the final day before the resignation of Gary Gensler, the outgoing SEC chairman and foe of the cryptocurrency industry. Trump had pledged to replace Gensler, who announced in November that he would step down at noon on Inauguration Day.🔥
Walter Shaub, the ethics watchdog who clashed with Trump during his first term before stepping down, raised the alarm about Trump's second term.🔥
“America voted for corruption, and that's what Trump delivers,” Schaub told CNN in an email. “Trump's corruption and blatant exploitation are so evident, extreme and widespread this time around that commenting on any aspect of it is like losing the forest for the trees.” The idea of government ethics is now a burning hole.”🔥
California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna said in a post on X that elected officials “should be prohibited from owning meme coins by law,” calling them “highly speculative and akin to gambling.” $MELANIA $SOL
SOL
241.54
-5.43%
TRUMP
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-20.52%
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