$特朗普的興衰：總統如何兌現模因硬幣

特朗普總統與他的前任不同的方式有很多方式，但一個值得注意的區別是他願意通過他的政治成功獲利。

President Trump's storefront website offers hundreds of Trump-branded items from hats and T-shirts to wine, chocolates, pickleball gear, Mar-a-Lago flip-flops and gilded Trump Tower Christmas ornaments.

特朗普總統的店面網站提供數百種特朗普品牌的物品，從帽子和T卹到葡萄酒，巧克力，泡菜裝備，Mar-a-Lago拖鞋和鍍金的Trump Tower Tower聖誕節裝飾品。

According to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the store added 168 new presidential-themed items just between election day and the inauguration.

根據華盛頓的責任和道德公民的說法，該商店在選舉日和就職典禮之間增加了168個以總統為主題的新項目。

But in the days leading up to Inauguration Day, the incoming president hit the jackpot. On Jan. 17, Trump launched his very own meme coin, a farcical subclass of cryptocurrency that has no legitimate uses and no intrinsic value. In the two days following the debut of $TRUMP coins, the president's net worth briefly soared to $56 billion before surrendering about half the gains after the soon-to-be First Lady announced her own meme coin called $MELANIA.

但是在就職日之前的幾天裡，即將上任的總統贏得了大獎。 1月17日，特朗普推出了自己的模因硬幣，這是一個無關緊要的加密貨幣，沒有合法用途，也沒有內在價值。在$特朗普硬幣首次亮相後的兩天內，總統的淨資產短暫飆升至560億美元，然後在即將成為第一夫人的第一夫人宣布自己的模因硬幣$ Melania之後投降了大約一半的收益。

The official website for the Trump meme contains a disclaimer warning that the $TRUMP coin is not intended to be an investment but also includes a unique condition: buyers surrender the right to sue the Trump Organization if the venture goes south. Analysis of trading registers showed that nearly half of all purchasers had never bought a crypto asset before.

特朗普模因的官方網站包含一個免責聲明，警告說，特朗普硬幣並非打算是一項投資，而是一個獨特的條件：如果該合資企業向南行駛，則買家將起訴特朗普組織的權利。對交易登記冊的分析表明，幾乎所有購買者以前從未購買過加密貨幣資產。

So how does one create a fortune out of thin air?

那麼，如何從稀薄的空氣中創造出財富？

Let's start with cryptocurrencies, non-physical assets that exist only in electronic form on a computerized ledger known as a blockchain. Once issued to the public, they trade on electronic platforms analogous to stock exchanges. Bitcoin and Ethereum are the most popular "coins," as they are called (even though no physical coin exists), but according to Coinbase, 1 million new digital currencies are listed every week.

讓我們從加密貨幣開始，僅在被稱為區塊鏈的計算機分類帳上以電子形式存在的非物理資產。一旦向公眾發行，他們就以類似於證券交易所的電子平台進行交易。比特幣和以太坊是稱為最受歡迎的“硬幣”（即使沒有物理硬幣），但根據Coinbase的說法，每週列出了100萬個新的數字貨幣。

The initial theory behind cryptocurrencies was to replace sovereign currencies like the U.S. dollar. That has not played out and is unlikely for many reasons, but they have certainly gained acceptance as a speculative vehicle. Trump, who once called Bitcoin a scam, reversed course and embraced the concept, welcoming the support of large donors from the crypto industry. Bitcoin's price has surged dramatically since his election victory.

加密貨幣背後的最初理論是替代像美元這樣的主權貨幣。由於許多原因，這並沒有發揮作用，但不太可能出現，但是它們肯定被接受為投機工具。特朗普曾經將比特幣稱為騙局，扭轉了路線並接受了這個概念，歡迎來自加密貨幣行業的大型捐助者的支持。自從他的選舉勝利以來，比特幣的價格急劇上漲。

So-called meme coins stand at the intersection of digital currency and satire. They are comical cryptocurrencies based on a particular meme, an idea or behavior that spreads rapidly by imitation (from a Greek word for mime or imitation), usually in the form of a graphic image that gains traction on social media. They are easy to create and have no practical use (unlike Bitcoin, at least in theory) other than entertainment, there are thousands of them, and their average life span is just a few days: 97% of all the meme coins created since 2021 are dead.

所謂的模因硬幣站在數字貨幣和諷刺的交匯處。它們是基於特定模因的可笑的加密貨幣，一種通過模仿而迅速傳播的想法或行為（從希臘語或模仿的希臘語中），通常是以在社交媒體上獲得吸引力的圖形圖像的形式。它們很容易創建，沒有實際用途（至少在理論上與比特幣不同），除了娛樂之外，還有數千個，它們的平均壽命僅幾天：自2021年以來創建的所有模因硬幣中有97％死了。

The very first meme coin was literally created as a joke. A popular social media meme featured a photo of Shiba Inu, a Japanese hunting dog. The meme was sometimes accompanied by a deliberate misspelling of "dog" as "doge," from an early 2000s cartoon.

第一個模因硬幣實際上是在開玩笑。一個受歡迎的社交媒體模因以日本狩獵犬Shiba Inu的照片為特色。該模因有時會伴隨著2000年代初的卡通漫畫中故意拼寫為“ Doge”。

In 2013, two software developers, intending to spoof the crypto hype created their own parody digital coin, naming it "Dogecoin" in a nod to the Shiba Inu meme. While they didn't set out to test the greater fool theory, their useless, satirical crypto coin increased in value by 30,000% at its peak in 2021 thanks in large measure to periodic Twitter trolling from Elon Musk. Thousands of new meme coins have appeared since, including offerings like Bonk, Beercoin, Pickle Token, HeeeHeee and Peanut the Squirrel (market value: $250 million). In homage to the abject frivolity of the frenzy, the entire meme coin infrastructure is often referred to by insiders with a common scatological term.

2013年，有兩名打算欺騙加密炒作的軟件開發人員創建了自己的模仿數字硬幣，並將其命名為“ Dogecoin”，以點頭對Shiba Inu Meme。儘管他們沒有著手測試更大的傻瓜理論，但他們無用的諷刺加密硬幣在2021年的高峰時就增加了30,000％，這在很大程度上要歸功於埃隆·馬斯克（Elon Musk）的定期Twitter。此後出現了數千種新的模因硬幣，包括Bonk，Beercoin，Pickle Token，Heeeheee和Peanut等產品（市場價值：2.5億美元）。為了向狂熱的脆弱性致敬，整個模因硬幣基礎設施通常是由具有共同階段性術語的內部人士提到的。

Which brings us to $TRUMP. The president's token was launched by a subsidiary of the Trump Organization on Jan. 17, three days prior to Inauguration Day. It is associated with a meme of a svelte, photoshopped Trump with raised fist overlaid with the words "FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT." One billion coins were created, with 200 million released to the public while the remaining 800,000 were retained by the president. In the hours after the launch, the market value of the tokens in circulation soared to over $14 billion.

這將我們帶到了特朗普。總統的代幣是由特朗普組織的子公司於就職典禮當天前三天的1月17日成立的。它與一個苗條的模因有關，photoshopthop thrump用“戰鬥戰鬥”一詞覆蓋了拳頭。創造了10億個硬幣，並向公眾發布了2億個硬幣，而剩下的80萬硬幣由總統保留。在發布後的幾個小時內，流通中令牌的市場價值飆升至140億美元。

The Trump Organization is estimated to have raked in $50-$100 million from the initial release and another $50 million in trading fees, which they are entitled to collect under the terms of the offering. That peak market value of outstanding coins implied a value of $56 billion for the remaining tokens still held by the president, briefly placing him among the 25 wealthiest people on earth. The First Lady's coin launch was much more modest, increasing her net worth by $3 billion, although it has also dropped significantly since the launch.

據估計，特朗普組織的最初發行版本為5000萬美元，另外5000萬美元的交易費用，他們有權根據發行條款收取。傑出硬幣的高峰市場價值暗示著仍然由總統持有的剩餘代幣的價值為560億美元，將他短暫地置於地球上25位最富有的人中。第一夫人的硬幣發射更加謙虛，使她的淨資產增加了30億美元，儘管自推出以來也大大減少了。

It is important to note that the president's unrealized profit of $56 billion has already proved ephemeral, as the market price of

重要的是要注意，總統未實現的560億美元利潤已經證明是短暫的，這是市場價格