唐納德·特朗普如何將加密貨幣變成金字塔計劃

然而，隨著他越來越接近白宮，特朗普改變了對這種“騙局”的想法，這可能是由於數百萬美元從行業捐助者那裡流入了他的競選庫中。

Donald Trump may have famously called cryptocurrency "a disaster waiting to happen" and a "scam." But as he got closer to potentially regaining the White House, Trump changed his mind about this "scam," probably as a result of the millions of dollars that flowed into his campaign coffers from industry donors. To the delight of these donors, Trump promised to make the United States the cryptocurrency capital of the world. He also talked about creating a strategic reserve of Bitcoin.

唐納德·特朗普（Donald Trump）可能曾被稱為加密貨幣“等待發生的災難”和“騙局”。但是，隨著他越來越接近潛在的白宮，特朗普改變了對這種“騙局”的想法，這可能是由於數百萬美元流入了他的行業捐助者的競選資金中。為了這些捐助者，特朗普答應使美國成為世界的加密貨幣之都。他還談到了創建比特幣戰略儲備。

After he won the election, Trump received over $11 million in contributions to his inaugural committee from the crypto industry. It’s a hallmark of pyramid scams that only the people at the top reap the benefits, and Trump has put himself at the very apex of the ziggurat in order to rake in millions for his posse and for himself.

在贏得選舉之後，特朗普獲得了加密貨幣行業的就職委員會的貢獻超過1100萬美元。這是金字塔騙局的標誌，只有最高的人才能獲得好處，而特朗普則將自己放在Ziggurat的最高點上，以便為自己的姿勢和自己的自己而搶走數百萬人。

Consider the saga of $TRUMP.

考慮一下特朗普的傳奇。

Three days before his inauguration, the $TRUMP meme coin debuted. Meme coins are usually based on an Internet meme and are "typically characterized by their volatile nature." Well, that sounds like a good fit for Trump! Indeed, after he promoted the coin on his social media accounts, its value surged astronomically.

在他就職典禮前三天，$特朗普的模因硬幣首次亮相。模因硬幣通常基於互聯網模因，並且“通常以其易變的性質為特徵”。好吧，這聽起來很適合特朗普！的確，在他在社交媒體帳戶上推廣硬幣後，其價值在天文學上飆升。

Some of the biggest winners in this naked money grab were the firms that launched the coin and profited from the transaction fees, which netted them as much as $100 million in the first two weeks. One of those firms was CIC Digital, which is owned by…Trump himself.

這筆赤裸裸的錢中的一些最大贏家是推出硬幣並從交易費中獲利的公司，在頭兩週內，他們賺了多達1億美元。其中一家公司是CIC Digital，該公司由……特朗普本人擁有。

Like all financial operations characterized by irrational exuberance, the value of $TRUMP soon plummeted. Indeed, over 800,000 investor accounts lost a total of $2 billion. Of course, they’re not the only Trump supporters who are suffering from buyer’s remorse. Even the stock market, which initially cheered Trump’s election, is having a serious hangover, a swing in mood not very different from $TRUMP’s trajectory.

就像所有以非理性繁榮為特徵的金融業務一樣，特朗普的價值很快就會下降。實際上，超過80萬個投資者帳戶損失了20億美元。當然，他們並不是唯一遭受買家re悔的特朗普支持者。即使是最初為特朗普大選加油的股票市場，也有嚴重的宿醉，情緒的搖擺與特朗普的軌跡並沒有很大不同。

$TRUMP’s deep dive notwithstanding—or perhaps because of the success of this scam—crypto remains an essential part of Trump’s economic plans. And Trump is not the only far-right leader who has dabbled in scamming the population with crypto. Argentina’s Javier Milei is now dealing with the aftermath of a corruption scandal associated with $LIBRA, a meme coin he initially supported and which left 10,000 investors over $250 million poorer. El Salvador is still reeling from Mayib Bukelle’s crypto obsession, which cost his country $60 million when Bitcoin tanked a couple years ago—not to mention all the Salvadoran energy and natural resources that Bitcoin mining has absorbed.

$特朗普的深度潛水（或者也許是因為這場騙局的成功）仍然是特朗普經濟計劃的重要組成部分。特朗普並不是唯一一個涉足用加密貨幣騙人的人口的極端領導人。阿根廷的哈維爾·米利（Javier Milei）現在正在處理與$ libra相關的腐敗醜聞的後果，$ libra是他最初支持的模因硬幣，並使10,000個投資者損失了超過2.5億美元的窮人。埃爾·薩爾瓦多（El Salvador）仍在梅布·布克爾（Mayib Bukelle）的加密corpto狂中脫穎而出，幾年前比特幣跌入比特幣時，他的國家損失了6000萬美元，更不用說比特幣採礦吸收的所有薩爾瓦多能源和自然資源。

Two years ago, I explained how cryptocurrencies function like pyramid scams. Last year, I discussed the environmental consequences of crypto.

兩年前，我解釋了加密貨幣如何像金字塔騙局一樣起作用。去年，我討論了加密貨幣的環境後果。

Now I want to dig a little deeper into the politics of crypto: how Trump and his far-right allies are using these digital currencies as a strategy to rig the rules of the game in their favor.

現在，我想更深入地研究加密政治：特朗普和他的極右翼盟友如何使用這些數字貨幣作為一種策略來挖掘遊戲規則的有利。

To understand how crypto scams work, you need to know about “sniping” and “rug-pulling.”

要了解加密騙局的工作方式，您需要了解“狙擊”和“地毯”。

When a new crypto product is launched, whether it’s a meme coin or a non-fungible token, a select group of speculators place a big buy to push the value higher. If enough of these “snipers” exit at the same time, the value drops, providing the snipers with short-term profits and leaving a lot of other investors holding the (empty) bag.

當推出新的加密產品（無論是模因硬幣還是不可殺死的代幣）時，一組精選的投機者將大買入以更高的價格推動該價值。如果這些“狙擊手”中的足夠多同時退出，則價值下降，為狙擊手提供短期利潤，並留下許多其他拿著（空）包的投資者。

Of course, it helps to know in advance about a new product launch so that you can line up your bots and your AI to execute high-volume and high-speed trades—and your coordinated exit from the stage. In another context, you might call this “insider trading.”

當然，事先了解新產品的發布有助於您可以對機器人和AI排列，以執行高批量和高速交易，以及從舞台上進行協調的退出。在另一種情況下，您可以稱之為“內部交易”。

The orchestrated sale of the crypto product is known as the “rug pull.” It can be sudden, as was the case with $TRUMP. Or it can take place over a longer period of time in what used to be known as the “long con.”

加密產品精心策劃的銷售稱為“地毯拉力”。可能是突然的，就像$ trump一樣。或者它可以在較長的時間內發生，以曾經被稱為“長騙局”。

The rug pull sometimes relies on the services of a celebrity. Let’s take a brief look at the case of Javier Milei in Argentina to understand how this works.

地毯拉力有時依賴於名人的服務。讓我們簡要介紹一下阿根廷的哈維爾·米利（Javier Milei）的案例，以了解這是如何工作的。

Argentine President Javier Milei is, to say the least, a heterodox economist. He pledged to cut government spending as a way of reining in inflation. He fired 30,000 government workers, eliminated government subsidies, and halted many public works projects. No surprise that Milei and his infamous chainsaw served as the inspiration for Musk and DOGE.

至少可以說，阿根廷總統哈維爾·米利（Javier Milei）是異教徒的經濟學家。他承諾將政府支出削減，以此作為通貨膨脹的一種方式。他解雇了30,000名政府工作人員，取消了政府補貼，並停止了許多公共工程項目。麥莉和他臭名昭著的電鋸是馬斯克和門檻的靈感並不奇怪。

Inflation in Argentina has indeed fallen, from nearly 300 percent to around 85 percent in January. But the costs have been immense to the poor. More than half of Argentines now live below the poverty line, and they are dealing with increased costs for food and basic services. The economy has also contracted as a not-very-surprising result of Milei’s chainsaw approach to government.

阿根廷的通貨膨脹確實下降了，一月份從近300％到約85％。但是對於窮人來說，成本巨大。現在，阿根廷人的一半以上生活在貧困線以下，他們正在處理食品和基本服務的成本增加。經濟也是麥利的電鋸方法對政府的抗衡的不可令人震驚的結果。

Among his many economic enthusi

在他的許多經濟熱情中