川普在上任前幾天推出了不穩定的加密代幣

唐納德·川普總統向加密貨幣投資者承諾，他將為這個長期陷入金融荒野的行業迎來一個合法時代

President Donald Trump, who has promised to usher in an era of legitimacy for crypto, launched a meme coin days before taking office.

唐納德·川普總統承諾開創加密貨幣的合法性時代，他在就職前幾天推出了一款迷因幣。

Photo: AFP

照片：法新社

President Donald Trump promised crypto investors he'd usher in an era of legitimacy for an industry that's long been relegated to the financial wilderness - dismissed by some mainstream investors as an highly speculative bet at best or an elaborate Ponzi scheme at worst.

唐納德·川普總統向加密貨幣投資者承諾，他將為這個長期陷入金融荒野的行業帶來一個合法性時代——一些主流投資者認為，這個行業往好了說是高度投機性的賭注，往壞了說是精心設計的龐氏騙局。

But days before his inauguration, Trump shocked many of his crypto supporters by peddling a digital token known as a meme coin, a functionally worthless asset that trades on hype and are a go-to vehicle for scams known as rug pulls.

但在就職典禮前幾天，川普兜售了一種被稱為迷因幣的數位代幣，震驚了他的許多加密貨幣支持者。靠炒作進行交易，是一種被稱為「拉地毯」的詐騙的首選工具。

To be clear, not all meme coins are scams, and the $TRUMP and $MELANIA coins appear to have safeguards built in to prevent a rug pull. Specifically, the Trump coin's website says its majority holders are subject to a three-year unlocking schedule, so they can't sell all at once. But even without selling a single token, the Trump Org. had raked in an estimated $58 million in a single day in trading fees alone, according to crypto researcher and former Coinbase executive Conor Grogan.

需要明確的是，並非所有迷因幣都是騙局，$TRUMP 和 $MELANIA 幣似乎內建了保護措施，以防止騙局。具體來說，川普幣的網站稱，其多數持有者必須遵守三年的解鎖時間表，因此他們不能一次全部出售。但即使不出售任何代幣，川普組織也能做到這一點。據加密貨幣研究員、Coinbase 前高管康納格羅根 (Conor Grogan) 稱，單日交易費估計就賺了 5,800 萬美元。

Yet meme coins have become known for rug pulls, in which developers launch a coin, run up its price and quickly cash out. If that sounds familiar, the "Hawk Tuah" influencer Haliey Welch was recently sued over her own coin, which briefly soared to a $500 million market cap before falling 90%. Welch said in a statement posted to X last month that she takes the situation seriously and is working to help affected investors.

然而，迷因幣因拉動而聞名，開發人員推出一種幣，提高其價格並迅速兌現。如果這聽起來很熟悉，「Hawk Tuah」影響者 Haliey Welch 最近因其自己的代幣而被起訴，該代幣的市值曾短暫飆升至 5 億美元，然後下跌 90%。韋爾奇在上個月發布給 X 的聲明中表示，她認真對待這一情況，並正在努力幫助受影響的投資者。

Meme coins, explained: A quick guide to the absurd, at times fraudulent, side of crypto that bitcoin and ether proponents would like to move past

Meme 幣解釋：比特幣和以太幣支持者希望擺脫的加密貨幣荒謬、有時甚至是欺詐性一面的快速指南

The fact that America's first "pro-crypto" president is hawking a token with no tangible utility has some in the industry concerned about Trump and his advisers' judgement as they prepare to overhaul the US regulatory regime with a new zeal for digital assets.

美國第一位「支持加密貨幣」的總統正在兜售一種沒有實際效用的代幣，這一事實引起了業內一些人對川普及其顧問的判斷的擔憂，因為他們準備以對數位資產的新熱情徹底改革美國的監管制度。

"Trump needs to fire his crypto advisors, from top to bottom," tweeted Gabor Gurbacs, founder of digital asset firm Pointsville.

數位資產公司 Pointsville 的創始人 Gabor Gurbacs 在推特上寫道：“川普需要從上到下解僱他的加密貨幣顧問。”

One giant ethical concern centers on Trump's majority ownership of the tokens: 80% of the coin's supply is held by Trump Organization affiliates CIC Digital and Fight Fight Fight LLC - a concentration that appears designed to personally enrich the president. Trump Org did not respond to a request for comment, but Eric Trump, the company's executive vice president, said in an X post Saturday: "I am extremely proud of what we continue to accomplish in crypto. $Trump is currently the hottest digital meme on earth."

一個巨大的道德問題集中在川普對這些代幣的多數所有權上：該代幣供應量的80% 由川普組織的附屬公司CIC Digital 和Fight Fight Fight LLC 持有——這種集中似乎是為了讓總統個人中飽私囊。 Trump Org 沒有回應置評請求，但該公司執行副總裁 Eric Trump 在周六的 X 帖子中表示：「我對我們在加密領域繼續取得的成就感到非常自豪。$Trump 是目前最熱門的數位迷因在地球上。

"Even meme coin enthusiasts are skeptical of projects where the majority of tokens are not held by a broader community and appear to be designed in way that disproportionately benefits insiders," Gareth Rhodes, managing director at advisory firm Pacific Street, told me. "But it is early, and the launch team can still take action to make it a more community-focused project."

顧問公司Pacific Street 的董事總經理加雷斯·羅茲(Gareth Rhodes) 告訴我：「即使是迷因幣愛好者也對大多數代幣不是由更廣泛的社區持有、而且其設計方式似乎對內部人士有利的項目持懷疑態度。 “但現在還為時過早，啟動團隊仍然可以採取行動，使其成為一個更加以社區為中心的項目。”

Ethics experts swiftly decried the apparent conflict of interest.

道德專家迅速譴責了這種明顯的利益衝突。

Walter Shaub, the ethics watchdog who clashed with Trump during his first term before stepping down, told my colleague Matt Egan the meme coin maneuver suggests "the very idea of government ethics is now a smoldering crater."

道德監管機構沃爾特·肖布(Walter Shaub)在川普第一個任期內與川普發生衝突，隨後辭職，他告訴我的同事馬特·伊根(Matt Egan)，模因硬幣的舉動表明“政府道德的理念現在已經是一個悶燒的火山口。”

The Trump administration, which officially entered the White House on Monday, didn't respond to CNN's request for comment.

週一正式入主白宮的川普政府沒有回應 CNN 的置評請求。

The dangers of meme coins

模因幣的危險

The global $3.5 trillion crypto market is a big tent, and while tokens like bitcoin dominate the industry, the open-sourced, decentralized nature of the blockchain, crypto's infrastructure, makes it easy for any developer to launch a token, run up the price and walk away with impunity. According to Forbes, between 40,000 and 50,000 new meme coins are created every day, with a combined market value of $100 billion.

全球3.5 兆美元的加密貨幣市場是一個大帳篷，雖然像比特幣這樣的代幣在該行業佔據主導地位，但區塊鏈、加密貨幣基礎設施的開源、去中心化性質使任何開發者都可以輕鬆推出代幣、抬高價格並逍遙法外。根據《富比士》報道，每天都會產生 40,000 至 50,000 個新的 Meme 幣，總市值達 1,000 億美元。

People tend to buy meme coins for the novelty, but doing so is about as risky as playing a casino slot machine. Trump's meme coin shot up after its launch Friday, from about $6.50 to $75 on Sunday, according to data from Coingecko. Then it tumbled, losing more than half its value on Monday as Trump entered the White House without any public nod to his crypto agenda. The price was hovering below $40 Tuesday.

人們傾向於購買迷因幣來尋求新奇，但這樣做的風險與玩賭場老虎機一樣危險。根據 Coingecko 的數據，川普的表情包幣在周五推出後價格飆升，從約 6.50 美元升至週日的 75 美元。然後隨著川普入主白宮而沒有公開認可他的加密貨幣議程，該幣值暴跌，週一損失了一半以上的價值。週二價格徘徊在 40 美元以下。

Last week, just a few days before Trump launched his token, the New York State Department of Financial Services issued a consumer alert over "rapidly proliferating" meme coins, which present "exceptional risk of fraud and loss of funds."

上週，就在川普推出其代幣的前幾天，紐約州金融服務部就「迅速擴散」的迷因代幣發出了消費者警報，這些代幣存在「欺詐和資金損失的特殊風險」。

Matthew Homer, a former financial regulator and now general partner of the crypto firm Department of XYZ, echoed a common industry refrain that a lack of regulatory clarity around crypto has contributed to those fraud risks.

前金融監管者、現任加密貨幣公司 Department of XYZ 的普通合夥人 Matthew Homer 呼應了行業中的一個常見說法，即加密貨幣監管缺乏明確性導致了這些欺詐風險。

The Securities and Exchange Commission's approach, he said, "created a situation where projects with genuine utility face significant regulatory hurdles

他表示，美國證券交易委員會的做法“造成了一種情況，即具有真正實用性的項目面臨重大監管障礙”