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Title: Debunking the Misconception: Trump's Alleged Cryptocurrency Fortune

Trump's foray into the world of meme coins as president might seem like another money-grabbing endeavor, echoing his $60 Made-in-China Bibles and $400 gold sneakers. However, it's unlikely to propel his wealth to unprecedented heights.

Trump might still be a billionaire, but his involvement with a meme coin isn't the financial...
Trump might still be a billionaire, but his involvement with a meme coin isn't the financial bonanza it might initially appear to be.

Title: Debunking the Misconception: Trump's Alleged Cryptocurrency Fortune

Some media outlets went wild with reports of a massive surge in Donald Trump's net worth over the weekend, spread like wildfire on social media. However, with a pinch of salt and a big swig of crypto reality, it's hard to swallow that the President's fortune suddenly skyrocketed by 800% due to a digital asset that, let's face it, doesn't exactly have practical application beyond emotions (more on that in a tad).

He's still a billionaire, true, but it'd take a miracle and a leap of faith to see his net worth soaring to the heights of the Silicon Valley tycoons who graced his inauguration.

The fortune of the super-rich is not as straightforward as ours. Normies like us have wages, salaries, homes, and retirement accounts. Add those up, minus debts, and that's your net worth. But the affluent are covered in a layer of assets like stock options and shares in private companies with murky value. Outlets like Forbes and Bloomberg dedicate teams to tracking the day-to-day fluctuations of the world's wealthiest, including Trump's net worth. His fortune, mostly tied to real estate and his stake in Truth Social, is valued just over $6 billion by both sources.

Last week, Trump and his wife unveiled their personal $TRUMP and $MELANIA meme coins. To the uninitiated, meme coins are digital tokens stamped with a president's or first lady's endorsement, trading solely on feelings and existing outside any distinguished utility within the crypto sphere. (In the buzz of those launches, someone managed to launch an "unofficial" Barron coin, later discovered to have no connection to the Trumps or their son.)

Forbes and Bloomberg refuse to recognize the crypto holdings in their calculations, mainly due to their "speculative nature", volatility, and lock-ups, making it tough to pin down an accurate value.

$TRUMP's launch website claimed that two Trump Organization affiliates controlled 80% of its token supply, with a "fully diluted value" near its peak touching $72 billion. Using "fully diluted value" is iffy in the crypto realm, considering it assumes the value of a particular asset will remain static, which, well, never happens.

As meme coins are the slot machines of the largely unregulated crypto casino, the $TRUMP coin went on a rollercoaster ride, increasing over 1,000% during the weekend, only to lose half its value within a day – the emotional whiplash making meme coins the wildest ride of the unsupervised crypto crypto-universe.

Even the most popular and "safe" token, Bitcoin, is too prone to wild swings for traditional investors.

In essence, Trump will surely make some money off the meme coin thing due to his penchant for branding. Plaster the Trump moniker on anything, and watch the revenue pour in (though a meme coin may offer less tangible benefits than a Bible, sneakers, watches, or cologne).

"He sees the power of the presidency to make a fortune by selling Trump coins – it's a no-brainer, and he doesn't concern himself with the ethical quagmires", said James Angel, a professor at Georgetown McDonough's Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy.

By some estimates, the Trump Organization rakes in tens of millions in trading fees.

But does that make him a "crypto billionaire"? A title that, in any context, should be treated with extreme skepticism.

The business world closely follows the financial moves of prominent figures like Trump, with outlets like Forbes and Bloomberg tracking his net worth. However, these sources do not recognize the value of his crypto holdings due to their volatility and speculative nature.

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