Benzinga - Usually, meme coins are related to dog memes or other innocuous pop culture icons. However, with the presidential election looming, the crypto community is looking to combine memes, crypto and politics into a new asset class some are calling "PoliFi."
MAGA Coin (TRUMP) is one of the tokens trailblazing the PoliFi movement. Created in August, the relatively new token is hoping to attract attention, gain investors and make a difference through charity work.
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The token does not offer much real value to investors, but it does donate a small percentage (0.4%) of the total token supply to different charities, such as Veterans for Child Rescue and National Veterans Homeless Support.
The main purpose of the token is investment. Traders are using it as somewhat of a proxy for betting on Trump on the campaign trail.
"It’s evolved to become this kind of de facto betting market on the election for many investors," said Steven Steele, the project's marketing director.
This also means that not all of the investors in TRUMP are die-hard MAGA supporters. They could simply be looking to make a quick buck off of price movement with the token.
As Trump was racking up primary victories, the price of the token surged, increasing from less than $3 on Feb. 22 to a high of $11.56 on March 4. This marked a more than 300% increase in less than two weeks. At its highest point, the market cap soared above $480 million and into the top 160 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
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Because the token uses Trump's name, image and likeness, he is earning royalties on it. The developers of the token send 579,281 TRUMP tokens to the former president’s wallet. At their peak, these tokens were worth $6.7 million.
However the token has since fallen nearly 50% from those highs, and the market cap is currently below $300 million. This means that Trump's holdings are worth just over $4 million. While this is still a significant amount, it is a long way from the previous highs.
Despite the setback in price, Steele still has huge ambitions for the future of the project.
"My intention is really to have this up there with a DOGE [Dogecoin] or SHIB [Shiba Inu], that kind of scale and market cap and popularity," Steele told Fortune.
SHIB and DOGE both have market caps of around $20 billion. For TRUMP to reach that level, the tokens would have to trade for around $475. This would require a 6,700% increase from current prices. While the token is unlikely to reach these levels, the price is up more than 40,000% since its inception in August.
So, as TRUMP (and Donald Trump) make headlines and the election draws closer, it will be interesting to see where the token and project go in the future.
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