Trump Makes $3M on Memecoins

Incoming US President, Donald Trump, is up more than $3M in 48 hours after a memecoin in his wallet surged by more than 800%. The memecoin, Trump Frog (TROG), was airdropped to his public address by the developer of the coin, likely looking to draw additional attention through Trump’s public wallet. In the same timeframe, another frog-themed memecoin, GUA, also made a huge move upwards, quintupling its value. Similar to TROG, these tokens were airdropped to Trump’s public address, netting him a paper gain of more than $570K.

This tactic relies heavily on the "wallet watching" culture within the crypto sector. Thousands of automated bots and retail traders track high-profile addresses, often interpreting any movement or increased balance as a bullish signal. By forcing these tokens into a celebrity’s wallet, developers effectively manufacture hype, hoping to trigger a wave of speculative buying from those monitoring the blockchain for the next big mover.

As an incoming US President with a publicly identified Ethereum wallet address due to its use in the launch of his NFT collection, it is no surprise that memecoin developers have been leveraging this address to drive attention to their launches, with many sending a significant portion of the supply to him. This is similar to how Ethereum founder, Vitalik Buterin, regularly receives airdropped tokens from memecoin launches, although Buterin often sells them very quickly, before donating the proceeds to charity.

However, observers should note the distinction between on-chain value and realizable profit. These massive valuations are often based on low liquidity pools, meaning the "paper gains" cannot always be cashed out without crashing the token's price. Unlike liquid assets such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, selling such a large percentage of a memecoin's supply would likely result in significantly lower returns than the headline figures suggest.