新当选的美国总统唐纳德·特朗普表现出了他一贯的谦虚态度，并将他新推出的加密货币或模因币命名为“$Trump”。

和他本人一样，硬币的价格也异常波动。价格上涨至 75 美元（6,475 卢比），跌破 60 美元（5,180 卢比），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.

新当选的美国总统唐纳德·特朗普表现出了他一贯的谦虚态度，并将他新推出的加密货币或模因币命名为“$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.

和他本人一样，硬币的价格也异常波动。价格上涨至 75 美元（6,475 卢比），跌破 60 美元（5,180 卢比），回到 75 美元，跌破 40 美元，然后回升至 60 美元，并在撰写本文时跌至 31 美元（3,400 卢比）。而这只是两天后的事情。

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

现在，他的妻子又推出了一枚梅拉尼娅硬币。

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

官方 Melania Meme 已上线！您现在可以购买 $MELANIA。 https://t.co/8FXvlMBhVfFUAfBo2jgks6gB4Z4LfZkqSZgzNucisEHqnNebaRxM1P pic.twitter.com/t2vYiahRn6

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

唐纳德·特朗普在经营企业方面并不成功。他的财富主要来自于他父亲的捐赠。

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”.

但他现在可能找到了一种利用名声赚钱的方法。讽刺的是，它使用的是加密货币，他将其描述为“骗局”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.

即使按照特朗普的标准，即将上任的总统在就职前几天制造如此大的利益冲突也是相当不寻常的。

What are memecoins?

什么是模因币？

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.

虽然第一种加密货币比特币未能实现这一目标，但它至少是在创建时考虑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，模因币甚至不假装有任何潜在用途。它们纯粹是投机代币。

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

最著名的模因币可能是狗狗币。它最初是作为一个笑话而创建的。它的澳大利亚联合创始人将其描述为“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.

但埃隆·马斯克(Elon Musk)的支持推文导致其价格飙升，他曾称其为“人民的加密货币”。 DOGE甚至是马斯克将为特朗普竞选的机构的缩写；政府效率部。 2021 年，其价格从不到 1 美分升至近 60 美分。现在是 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 种最大的加密货币包括柴犬（以 Doge 互联网模因中的狗品种命名）、Pepe（以卡通青蛙命名）、Bonk、Fartcoin 和 Floki（以马斯克的狗命名）等模因币。

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.

许多模因币都是“拉高抛售”计划的一部分。这些涉及硬币创造者谈论它们，然后迅速出售，给买家留下毫无价值的硬币。

What does “market capitalisation” mean?

“市值”是什么意思？

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?

您可能已经看到过这样的说法：特朗普“价值”约 70 亿美元，Fartcoin 价值 20 亿美元，梅拉尼娅价值约 10 亿美元。这实际上意味着什么？

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.

这是所谓的市值的参考。特朗普的巅峰时期为 150 亿美元，但目前为 70 亿美元。就具体而言，80 亿美元的跌幅相当于 Coles 和 Santos 等澳大利亚大型公司市值的一半左右。

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

这些报告的市值需要谨慎解读。

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.

它们的计算方法与上市公司股票的计算方法类似。例如，澳大利亚最大的公司联邦银行目前已发行约 17 亿股股票，其交易价格约为 150 澳元，因此市值约为 2500 亿澳元。

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.

但这并不意味着如果每个股东今天都想出售的话，他们将总共获得 2500 亿澳元。一旦大量股东开始抛售，股价就会大幅下跌。只有第一批卖家才能达到当前价格。

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个非常大的流动性市场。他们拥有坚实的利润基础，并且拥有资产负债表。模因币则不然，它既不盈利，也没有任何基础资产。

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，与大型贸易公司不同，创造新硬币并不那么困难。据报道，一名 13 岁的孩子通过制作一个玩具赚了 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?

但如果你创造了 1 亿枚硬币，我以 10 美元购买一枚，这真的意味着你的硬币价值 10 亿美元吗？

Why should buyers be wary?

买家为何要谨慎？

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

$Trump 自己的网站包含一条免责声明，指出 $Trump 不是“投资机会”也不是“证券”。

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

如果您正在考虑赌博，请不要说没有警告您。

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

约翰·霍金斯 (John Hawkins)，堪培拉大学堪培拉政治、经济与社会学院高级讲师

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

本文是根据知识共享许可从 The Conversation 重新发布的。阅读原文。