特朗普的模因硬幣是一個騙局，但他仍然有數百萬美元

Three days before his presidential inauguration, Donald Trump launched a meme coin, a type of cryptocurrency whose value is largely driven by social media and internet culture rather than any intrinsic value or functionality.

唐納德·特朗普（Donald Trump）在總統就職典禮前三天發起了一種模因硬幣，這是一種加密貨幣，其價值在很大程度上是由社交媒體和互聯網文化驅動的，而不是任何內在的價值或功能。

The coin, officially called $Trump, briefly ascended into the top 15 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization and attracted over a half-million buyers.

這枚硬幣正式稱為特朗普，通過市值短暫地進入了前15名加密貨幣，並吸引了超過50萬的買家。

During a news conference on Jan. 21, 2025, a reporter asked Trump about the coin, questioning whether he intended to continue selling products that personally benefited him while being president.

在2025年1月21日的新聞發布會上，一名記者向特朗普詢問了這枚硬幣，質疑他是否打算繼續銷售在擔任總統時親自受益的產品。

“You made a lot of money [on $Trump], sir,” he told Trump, who seemed unaware of its meteoric rise in value.

他告訴特朗普，他對特朗普說：“您賺了很多錢。”

“How much?” Trump asked.

“多少？”特朗普問。

“Several billion dollars, it seems like, in the last couple days.”

“在過去的幾天裡，似乎數十億美元。”

Over the following week, various publications claimed the meme coin had “ballooned [Trump’s] net worth” making him a “crypto billionaire.”

在接下來的一周中，各種出版物聲稱模因硬幣“激怒了[特朗普的淨資產”，使他成為“加密億萬富翁”。

While it’s true that Trump stands to benefit handsomely from the meme coin and his other crypto ventures, the claims of Trump himself earning billions off it are exaggerated.

雖然特朗普的確可以從模因硬幣和他的其他加密貨幣冒險中受益匪淺，但特朗普本人的主張被誇大了數十億美元。

Funny money or filch?

有趣的錢還是污點？

Meme coins became popular in 2013 with the launch of Dogecoin, which its creators intended as a joke, poking fun at the many other seemingly useless cryptocurrencies that were emerging at the time. It was never supposed to be a popular investment. The creators even attempted to make it as undesirable as possible to ensure it wouldn’t.

Meme Coins於2013年隨著Dogecoin的推出而受到歡迎，Dogecoin的創作者打算是個玩笑，在當時正在出現的許多其他看似無用的加密貨幣上嘲笑了樂趣。它永遠不會是一項流行的投資。創作者甚至試圖使其盡可能不受歡迎，以確保它不會。

Twelve years later, it remains in the top 10 cryptocurrencies and has inspired thousands of other meme coins to launch.

十二年後，它仍然處於十大加密貨幣中，並激發了成千上萬的其他模因硬幣。

In 2025, it’s cheaper and easier than ever to launch and trade these tokens.

在2025年，啟動和交易這些代幣比以往任何時候都更便宜，更容易。

For example, all it takes to create a new coin on the website Pump.fun is a name, ticker symbol, description, image and the equivalent of roughly US$5 worth of cryptocurrency.

例如，在網站泵上創建新硬幣所需的一切是名稱，股票符號，描述，圖像和相當於價值5美元的加密貨幣。

Moonshot, the crypto exchange that Trump’s meme coin website routes interested buyers to, allows users to sign up in as little as 10 minutes. They’re then able to purchase the Trump coin and a slew of other meme coins.

Moonshot是特朗普的Meme Coin網站的加密貨幣交易所，該網站允許用戶在短短10分鐘內註冊。然後，他們能夠購買特朗普硬幣和許多其他模因硬幣。

The vast majority of meme coins launched are dubious. Many are outright scams. For instance, in August 2024 the Instagram account of McDonald’s was hacked to advertise a meme coin named $Grimace in a nod to the fast-food chain’s purple mascot. After artificially inflating the price of the coin, the creators cashed out close to $700,000.

發射的絕大多數模因硬幣都是可疑的。許多是徹底的騙局。例如，在2024年8月，麥當勞的Instagram帳戶被黑客入侵，宣傳了一個名為$ Grimace的模因硬幣，以致敬快餐連鎖店的紫色吉祥物。在人為地誇大了硬幣的價格之後，創作者兌現了近70萬美元。

There are countless other scam coins that fly under the radar using the same dynamic: generate hype, pump the price and dump on investors.

還有其他無數的騙局硬幣會使用相同的動態在雷達下飛行：產生炒作，抽出價格和投資者的轉儲。

Looking under the hood

看著引擎蓋

So how much might Trump and his associates actually benefit from his new meme coin and, more broadly, the “free-for-all” attitude his administration is taking toward the crypto industry?

那麼，特朗普和他的同事實際上可以從他的新模因硬幣中受益多少，更廣泛地說，他的政府對加密貨幣行業採取的“全部自由”態度？

I study the gray area between participation and exploitation in crypto markets, and I dug deeper into the Trump meme coin.

我研究加密貨幣市場的參與與剝削之間的灰色區域，然後深入挖掘了特朗普模因硬幣。

One way to assess whether a meme coin offering is a scam is to look at its “tokenomics” – that is, the predetermined number of units of its supply, how that supply is distributed and how much of it the creator gets to keep. The higher the percentage of the supply allocated to the creators, the more they can sell for profit. As media studies scholar Lana Swartz points out, creator tokens were originally intended for developers to crowdfund their startups. But with meme coins – which typically don’t claim to build anything – they exist to enrich their creators and, potentially, fund continued marketing of the coin.

評估模因發行是一種騙局的一種方法是查看其“令牌學”，即預定的供應單位數量，供應方式如何分發以及創建者可以保留多少。分配給創作者的供應的百分比越高，他們就能出售盈利的百分比。正如媒體研究學者Lana Swartz指出的那樣，創建者令牌最初是為了開發人員來眾籌。但是，有了Meme硬幣（通常不聲稱要建造任何東西），它們的存在是為了豐富其創作者，並有可能為硬幣的持續營銷提供資金。

Unlike Dogecoin, which took a “fair launch” approach – meaning that its creators didn’t allocate a portion of the initial coins to themselves before allowing others to trade it – the majority of Trump tokens are allocated to its creators on a three-year-long distribution schedule.

與Dogecoin不同，Dogecoin採用了“公平發射”的方法- 這意味著其創作者在允許其他人進行交易之前並沒有將部分硬幣的一部分分配給自己- 大多數特朗普令牌是在三年內分配給其創作者的 - 長分佈時間表。

In fact, 80% of the coin supply will be distributed to the coin’s creators over the course of three years. In other words, the tokenomics of the Trump meme coin are set up so that its creators can slowly sell off their large supply without drastically manipulating its price. Rather than quickly pulling the rug from under investors’ feet, they can do it slowly.

實際上，在三年的時間裡，80％的硬幣供應將分配給硬幣的創作者。換句話說，建立了特朗普模因硬幣的標記學，以便其創造者可以慢慢出售其大型供應，而無需大量操縱其價格。他們不能迅速將地毯從投資者的腳下拉出，而是可以緩慢地做到這一點。

None of this is hidden information – the tokenomics of the Trump meme coin are featured prominently on the coin’s website.

這些都不是隱藏的信息 - 特朗普模因硬幣的標記學是在硬幣的網站上突出的。

Notably, none of the people behind the coin will begin receiving portions of the supply until March 2025. The amount of profit they can reap will be based on future prices. At the time of this writing, the Trump meme coin was down roughly 60% from its peak.

值得注意的是，硬幣背後的任何人都不會在2025年3月之前開始收到部分供應。他們可以獲得的利潤將基於未來的價格。在撰寫本文時，特朗普模因硬幣比其頂峰下降了約60％。

Who are these creators anyway? The various layers of limited liability companies behind the project, listed in fine print on the $Trump meme website, obscure which individuals stand to benefit.

這些創造者是誰？該項目背後的有限責任公司的各個層次在$ Trump Meme網站上以精美的印刷列出，個人將受益。

Presuming Trump

假設特朗普