In the year of the US election, the crypto world has also set off a presidential MEME craze. On May 9, US presidential candidate Donald Trump announced that his campaign would accept cryptocurrency donations. This news triggered widespread discussion in the crypto community, and at the same time, various Trump-themed MEME coins quickly became popular.
In order to further gain support from the crypto community, Trump said: "Biden doesn't even know what cryptocurrency is. If you like cryptocurrency, you'd better vote for Trump." He also promised to stop the US's hostility towards cryptocurrency and embrace it. As soon as this statement came out, a wave of MEME coin speculation with the theme of the presidential election was set off in the crypto field.
Biden or Trump? Whose MEME is better?
Judging from the transaction volume and overall market value, Trump's MEME coin is obviously more appealing. For example, the most well-known Trump MEME coin is called Trump (project name MAGA, MAKE CRYPTO GREAT AGAIN). As of May 17, the coin has 33,000 holders and a market value of $410 million. According to coingecko data, the coin has become the top ten MEME coins in terms of market value. The market value of Biden-related MEME coin Boden is about $310 million.
As early as March this year, just after the Super Tuesday primary election, the MEME competition between Trump and Biden was launched on the Solana chain. However, at that time, the national coin issuance tool Pump was not yet popular, so the competition was mainly focused on the two MEME coins TRUMP and Boden.
This competition is mainly transferred to the Solana chain. Currently, there are 7 Trump-related MEME coins with a market value of more than $100,000 on Pump.fun. Among them, PepeTrump, which was launched on April 17, is the most successful Trump-related MEME coin, with a peak market value of about $60 million and a current market value of $6.79 million. In contrast, Biden-related MEME coins have weaker market appeal. The Biden-related MEME coin with the highest market value on Pump is Biden2024, with a market value of only $30,000, and has fallen by more than 90% since a brief rise on April 17.
The two with the highest increase are Pixiu disk
Although market hot spots change rapidly, for such long-lasting hot events, early MEME coins are more closely related to hot spots. For example, TRUMP, the coin with the highest market value, was created nine months ago, and none of the Trump-related MEME coins released recently entered the top ten in terms of trading volume.
In addition, among the newly created Trump-themed MEME coins in the past seven days, the two with the largest increase are also Pixiu disks. This reminds MEME players who are keen on hyping new hot spots that MEME coins are not always new and old. Sometimes, MEME coins with longer duration are more likely to gain a foothold in long-term hot spots because of their higher consensus and lower trust cost.
MEME players only chase hot topics, and the president is just hype material
On May 9, Trump held a private dinner at his estate and specially invited "superhero" NFT buyers to attend. According to the CoinDesk reporter, Trump is not an expert in cryptocurrency, but an expert in selling cryptocurrency.
According to a March 2024 poll by Paradigm, a technology research and investment company, most cryptocurrency owners plan to vote for Trump rather than current President Biden. The survey showed that 48% of cryptocurrency owners plan to vote for Trump and 39% plan to vote for Biden. Currently, 19% of American voters hold cryptocurrencies, making crypto holders an important target group for the presidential campaign. For players who participate in presidential-themed speculative MEME coins, candidates with a greater chance of winning the election also mean that their themed tokens may have a greater increase.
However, the popularity of MEME does not seem to be directly related to the election itself. For MEME coin players, more attention is paid to the short-term correlation between MEME coins and hot spots and their impact on the price trend of tokens. As for who will be elected president, it is not the key for MEME players.
The reason why Trump's MEME coin can win over Biden's is more due to Trump's influence on social media. According to the Arkham platform, Trump is the second largest crypto asset holder in terms of fans on the X platform (the first is Justin Bieber). The three series of Trump Digital Trading Cards previously launched by the Trump team have accumulated sales of millions of dollars, showing the Trump team's deep understanding of the crypto asset field.
There are also different understandings in the market about who is closer to the crypto world, Trump or Biden. On the one hand, the Biden administration has currently issued many restrictive regulations on the crypto industry, such as the 2022 cryptocurrency regulatory framework and the wash sale rules for cryptocurrencies from 2024 to 2025, and the recent SEC's multi-line prosecution of multiple crypto giants, all of which reflect the Biden administration's regulatory attitude towards the crypto industry. On the other hand, according to CNN, James McLeff and his wife, the second largest funder behind Biden and the Democratic Party, are also veteran players in cryptocurrency trading and have a strong interest in the federal government's digital currency policy.
Trump was skeptical about the value of cryptocurrencies during his last term. Therefore, before the next US presidential election results are announced, the attitudes of both candidates towards the crypto field are unknown. For MEME coin players, short-term speculation on campaign topics is more about chasing social hot spots. In the long run, it is more like a gamble on the next US presidential candidate.