U.S. President-elect Donald Trump Launches Cryptocurrency Token as the World Prepares for His Monday Inauguration and Policies Expected to Benefit the Industry that Helped Republicans Take Control of the White House and Congress

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump faced a flood of criticism throughout the weekend for launching a cryptocurrency token as the world prepared for his

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump faced a chorus of criticism throughout the weekend for launching a cryptocurrency token as the world prepared for his Monday inauguration and policies expected to benefit the industry that helped Republicans take control of the White House and Congress.

"It is literally cashing in on the presidency—creating a financial instrument so people can transfer money to the president's family in connection with his office," Campaign Legal Center executive director Adav Noti told The New York Times. "It is beyond unprecedented."

Jordan Libowitz, vice president for communications at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, also contrasted Trump's move with behaviors of past presidents, telling Politico, "It is absolutely wild."

"After decades of seeing presidents-elect spend the time leading up to inauguration separating themselves from their finances to show that they don't have any conflicts of interest, we now have a president-elect who, the weekend before inauguration, is launching new businesses along with promises to deregulate... those sectors in a way to just blatantly profit off his own presidency," said Libowitz.

The president-elected announced the $TRUMP meme coin, hosted on the Solana blockchain, via his Truth social media platform and X—owned by Elon Musk, his ally and the richest person on the planet—on Friday, declaring that "it's time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING!"

He linked to a website that explains "there are 200 million $TRUMP available on day one and will grow to a total of 1 billion $TRUMP over three years." It also states that "Trump Memes are intended to function as an expression of support for, and engagement with, the ideals and beliefs embodied by the symbol '$TRUMP' and the associated artwork, and are not intended to be, or to be the subject of, an investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any type."

Forbes reported that "the remaining 80% of tokens that have yet to be publicly released are owned by the Trump Organization affiliate CIC Digital LLC and Fight Fight Fight LLC, a company formed in Delaware on January 7, according to state filings, and both companies will receive an undisclosed amount of revenue derived from trading activity."

The president-elect's son Eric Trump, who helps run Trump Organization, told the Times that "this is just the beginning."

"I am extremely proud of what we continue to accomplish in crypto," he said in a statement. "$TRUMP is currently the hottest digital meme on Earth."

In an article simply headlined, "Donald Trump, crypto billionaire," Axios noted that by Sunday morning, "Trump's crypto holdings were worth as much as $58 billion on paper, enough—with his other assets—to make him one of the world's 25 richest people."

Responding to Axios' report, Wa'el Alzayat, who served as a Middle East policy expert at the U.S. Department of State for a decade, said that "when I was in government I couldn't accept a lunch over $20. Now anyone can give our next president millions."

Predicting that "this is going to end VERY badly for everyone except Donald Trump and his cronies," journalist Jeff St. John said that "it is a scandal and an outrage."

The meme coin announcement came as "the elite of the crypto world" gathered in Washington, D.C. for the first-ever Crypto Ball.

The president-elect did not attend the event, but House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and the nominees for commerce and treasury secretary, Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessent, were there.

Reporting on the gala, Reuters pointed out that the Trump "courted crypto campaign cash with promises to be a 'crypto president,' and is expected next week to issue executive orders aimed at reducing crypto regulatory roadblocks and promoting widespread adoption of digital assets."

Trump is no stranger to ethics scandals. As Mother Jones detailed:

"Trump's presidency was marred by an unprecedented number of ethics scandals and conflicts of interest, largely stemming from his refusal to fully divest from his sprawling business empire before taking office and his administration's rollback of ethics rules that applied to previous presidents. Among other things, Trump continued to host foreign dignitaries at his D.C. hotel, promoted his properties in official statements, and pressured Ukraine's president to investigate one of his political rivals—all while keeping a tight grip on the reins of his family business."

S.V. Dáte, a senior White House correspondent at HuffPost, highlighted Sunday that during the Republican's first term, "Trump's D.C. hotel was a convenient way for foreign and domestic lobbyists to put cash directly into his pocket."

"This crypto thing is next level. Anyone on the planet can put money directly into his pocket. Huge," Dáte added. "The efficiency here is a thing of beauty. With a hotel, you have all the costs of