President-elect Donald Trump Accumulates Vastly More Wealth in the Past 24 Hours Than He Did in His Entire Life Previously

Underscoring that tenuous real-world performance, it appears that Trump has now accumulated vastly more wealth in the past 24 hours than he did in his entire life previously.

A cryptocurrency named after President-elect Donald Trump has appreciated so rapidly that it has made him one of the 25 richest people in the world — at least on paper.

Meme coin $TRUMP was launched on Monday, ahead of Trump's second inauguration. By Tuesday, Axios reported that 89 percent of Trump's net worth was tied up in the cryptocurrency, putting it at over $60 billion and making him one of the world's 25 richest people, according to Forbes' real-time billionaire rankings.

However, the coin crashed later in the day, losing around 50 percent of its value. Despite this, the cryptocurrency still makes up the vast majority of Trump's net worth, and renders him significantly wealthier than he was on Monday morning.

Wallet Inspector, a cryptocurrency price tracking service, showed that Trump's net worth was around $11 billion on Monday, before the launch of $TRUMP.

Trump's actual net worth has been a subject of frequent speculation for decades, with estimates ranging from the billions to the hundreds of millions. He inherited a vast sum from his father, and has declared bankruptcy at several ventures, including a hotel and a casino.

Two things will be true of Trump's presidency. First, he will have immense regulatory power over the cryptocurrency industry. After slamming the technology for years, he reversed his position when it became financially convenient to him, and has now nominated crypto advocate Paul Atkins to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Second, any wealthy people who need a favor from Trump will now be able to buy caches of his meme coin to earn influence.

None of this is remotely fair in any normal sense of the world, and the whole thing stinks to high heaven. Trump's crypto isn't shooting up in value because of any intrinsic technical or business prowess; it's doing so because investors believe — and rightly, in all likelihood — that it will be a lucrative conflict of interest over the next four years.