新當選的美國總統唐納德·特朗普表現出了他一貫的謙虛態度，並將他新推出的加密貨幣或模因幣命名為“$Trump”。

和他本人一樣，硬幣的價格也異常波動。價格上漲至 75 美元（6,475 盧比），跌破 60 美元（5,180 盧比），回到 75 美元

Freshly elected US President Donald Trump has exercised his usual degree of modesty and named his newly launched cryptocurrency or memecoin, $Trump.

新當選的美國總統唐納德·特朗普表現出了他一貫的謙虛態度，並將他新推出的加密貨幣或模因幣命名為“$Trump”。

And like the man himself, the coin’s price is extraordinarily volatile. The price ran up to $75 (Rs 6,475), fell below $60 (Rs 5,180), went back to $75, fell below $40, then rose back to $60 and had fallen to $31 (Rs 3,400) at the time of writing. And this was just in two days.

和他本人一樣，硬幣的價格也異常波動。價格上漲至 75 美元（6,475 盧比），跌破 60 美元（5,180 盧比），回到 75 美元，跌破 40 美元，然後回升至 60 美元，並在撰寫本文時跌至 31 美元（3,400 盧比）。而這只是兩天後的事。

It has now been joined by a $Melania coin, promoted by his wife.

現在，他的妻子又推出了一枚梅蘭妮亞硬幣。

The Official Melania Meme is live!You can buy $MELANIA now.  https://t.co/8FXvlMBhVfFUAfBo2jgks6gB4Z4LfZkqSZgzNucisEHqnNebaRxM1P pic.twitter.com/t2vYiahRn6

官方 Melania Meme 已上線！ 您現在可以購買 $MELANIA。

Donald Trump was not a success at running businesses. His wealth was mostly due to what he was given by his father.

唐納德·川普在經營企業方面並不成功。他的財富主要來自於父親的捐贈。

But he may now have found a way of monetising his fame. Ironically it is using a cryptocurrency, the leading example of which he has described as a “scam”.

但他現在可能找到了利用名聲賺錢的方法。諷刺的是，它使用的是加密貨幣，他將其描述為「騙局」的主要例子。

Even by Trump standards, it is quite extraordinary that an incoming president would create such a large conflict of interest days before assuming office.

即使以川普的標準，即將上任的總統在就職前幾天製造如此大的利益衝突也是相當不尋常的。

What are memecoins?

什麼是模因幣？

While the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, has failed in this goal, it was at least created with the idea that it would have a use as a payments instrument.

雖然第一種加密貨幣比特幣未能實現這一目標，但它至少在創建時考慮到它可以用作支付工具。

Memecoins by contrast do not even pretend to have any potential use. They are purely speculative tokens.

相比之下，模因幣甚至不假裝有任何潛在用途。它們純粹是投機代幣。

Probably the best known memecoin is Dogecoin. It was originally created as a joke. Its Australian co-creator described it as a “piss take”.

最著名的模因幣可能是狗狗幣。它最初是作為一個笑話而創建的。它的澳大利亞聯合創始人將其描述為“小便”。

But supportive tweets by Elon Musk, who once called it the “ people’s crypto”, have led to spurts in its price. DOGE is even the acronym of the agency Musk will be running for Trump; the Department Of Government Efficiency. In 2021 its price went from less than 1 US cent to almost 60 cents. It is now 35 cents.

但馬斯克(Elon Musk)的支持推文導致其價格飆升，他曾稱其為「人民的加密貨幣」。 DOGE甚至是馬斯克將為川普競選的機構的縮寫；政府效率部。 2021 年，其價格從不到 1 美分升至近 60 美分。現在是 35 美分。

The 100 largest cryptocurrencies include memecoins such as Shiba Inu (named after the dog breed featured on the Doge internet meme), Pepe (named after a cartoon frog), Bonk, Fartcoin and Floki (named after Musk’s dog).

100 種最大的加密貨幣包括柴犬（以 Doge 網路迷因中的狗品種命名）、Pepe（以卡通青蛙命名）、Bonk、Fartcoin 和 Floki（以馬斯克的狗命名）等迷因幣。

Many memecoins are part of “pump and dump” schemes. These involve the coin creators talking them up and then quickly selling, leaving the buyers with worthless coins.

許多模因幣都是“拉高拋售”計劃的一部分。這些涉及硬幣創造者談論它們，然後迅速出售，給買家留下毫無價值的硬幣。

What does “market capitalisation” mean?

「市值」是什麼意思？

You may have seen claims that $Trump is “worth” around $7 billion, Fartcoin $2 billion and $Melania around $1 billion. What does this actually mean?

您可能已經看過這樣的說法：川普「價值」約 70 億美元，Fartcoin 價值 20 億美元，梅蘭妮亞價值約 10 億美元。這實際上意味著什麼？

It is a reference to the so-called market capitalisation. $Trump’s peaked at $15 billion, but is currently $7 billion. To put the $8 billion drop into context, it is equivalent to around half the value of large Australian companies like Coles and Santos.

這是所謂的市值的參考。川普的巔峰時期為 150 億美元，但目前為 70 億美元。就具體而言，80 億美元的跌幅相當於 Coles 和 Santos 等澳洲大型公司市值的一半左右。

These reported market capitalisations need to be interpreted with some caution.

這些報告的市值需要謹慎解讀。

They are calculated analogously with those for shares of listed companies. So, for example, Australia’s largest company, the Commonwealth Bank, currently has around 1.7 billion shares on issue and they are trading at around A$150 so the market capitalisation is around A$250 billion.

它們的計算方法與上市公司股票的計算方法類似。例如，澳洲最大的公司聯邦銀行目前已發行約 17 億股股票，其交易價格約為 150 澳元，因此市值約為 2,500 億澳元。

But that does not mean if every shareholder wanted to sell today they would collectively get A$250 billion. Once a large number of shareholders start selling, the share price would drop by a lot. Only the first sellers would achieve the current price.

但這並不意味著如果每個股東今天都想出售的話，他們將總共獲得 2500 億澳元。一旦有大量股東開始拋售，股價就會大幅下跌。只有第一批賣家才能達到目前價格。

At least there is a very large and liquid market for listed shares in large companies. They have a fundamental basis in solid profits they have earned and they have a balance sheet with assets. This is not the case with memecoins, which neither make profits nor have any underlying assets.

至少大公司的上市股票有一個非常大的流動性市場。他們擁有堅實的利潤基礎，並且擁有資產負債表。模因幣則不然，它既不盈利，也沒有任何基礎資產。

Furthermore, unlike a large traded company, creating a new coin is not that difficult. A 13-year-old child reportedly made A$46,000 by creating one.

此外，與大型貿易公司不同，創造新硬幣並不那麼困難。據報道，一名 13 歲的孩子透過製作一個作品賺了 46,000 澳元。

But if you create 100 million coins, and I buy one for $10, does this really mean your coin is worth $1 billion?

但如果你創造了 1 億枚硬幣，我以 10 美元購買一枚，這真的意味著你的硬幣價值 10 億美元嗎？

Why should buyers be wary?

買家為何要謹慎？

$Trump's own website includes a disclaimer noting $Trump is not “an investment opportunity” nor “a security”.

$Trump 自己的網站包含一條免責聲明，指出 $Trump 不是「投資機會」也不是「證券」。

If you are thinking about gambling on it, don't say you were not warned.

如果您正在考慮賭博，請不要說沒有警告您。

John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra

約翰‧霍金斯 (John Hawkins)，坎培拉大學坎培拉政治、經濟與社會學院高級講師

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

本文是根據知識共享授權從 The Conversation 重新發布的。閱讀原文。