《“Insider Trading President”: When the Dark Forest of Cryptocurrency Enters the White House》
Last night, I was chatting with a foreign friend about the Trump coin major shareholder banquet. He joked that Trump has made insider trading above board, and he should be called the “Insider Trading President.”
Everyone feels deeply that we once thought cryptocurrency was being “de-barbarized,” moving towards compliance and institutionalization. But Trump and his confidants seem to be going in the opposite direction, bringing the most “wild” and speculative tactics from the crypto world back to Wall Street and the political arena.
It's quite ironic.
Here are a few examples:
1. Before taking office, he launched meme coins, not only releasing them himself but also getting his whole family involved, becoming the final blow to the liquidity on the chain.
-> Doesn’t it resemble a well-known crypto developer launching a coin, followed by a bunch of rug pulls?
2. His son creates a small crypto organization, allowing donations to be exchanged for chips to buy, with the “presidential coin camp” label attached.
-> Doesn’t it resemble project teams paying KOLs for promotions?
3. He uses rhetoric to influence the stock market, and before the government issues good news, not only does his family buy in, but he also encourages his close circle to buy in, boasting without any concealment about their profits.
-> Doesn’t it resemble how crypto big shots and their small teams operate?
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This Trump coin major shareholder banquet is almost identical to many projects that create verification WeChat groups for big investors. Now, I’m starting to suspect he is tokenizing “loyalty,” creating a “political version of the Web3 loyalty” system.
“$TRUMP is a proof of faith,” if you buy, I’ll remember you—this is somewhat like Web3 projects doing POAPs and loyalty points. In the future, political support might be directly tokenized, using NFTs/tokens to distinguish “core supporters vs bystanders.”
If future banquets become regular, like every few months/year, there might be significant political rent-seeking opportunities and potential for quid pro quo, much more reliable than Buffett’s dinners which are only famous but not profitable.
For instance, if my business wants to gain Trump’s political protection, but my circle is a bit low-tier, I can’t even get close to Trump’s entourage, or I would get hit with a lot of kickbacks from intermediaries. What should I do? I might as well buy more $Trump coins to become a big investor, and then I could sit at the presidential dinner table, easy, right?
I could also sell it later to the next person wanting to align with the president, and who knows, I might even make a profit, sounds great.
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Trump has set an interesting precedent for American presidents.
On the surface, making money seems to be Trump’s unique talent, but in reality, his ability to identify and exploit loopholes in the system is his true gift. While most congress members are still expressing clumsy misunderstandings about cryptocurrency and Web3, this old man has quickly learned and utilized it for massive profits.
And this “Web3 governance” paradigm might be imitated by more politicians in the future, after all, if you can do it, why can’t I?
Previously, the presidential family profited quite discreetly, as they had some sense of shame. Trump, this time, is doing it openly, even daring to put it on the blockchain.
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Conclusion: An Ironic Cycle
We once hoped that Web3 would be a replacement for traditional finance, a fair and transparent new order. Ironically, the ultimate reality is that the old order has absorbed the wildest practices of the crypto world, reshaping the power structure itself.
Trump may not be a crypto fundamentalist, but he has indeed promoted the combination of crypto and politics, right in the most powerful government on this planet.
