7 min read
The 2024 U.S. Presidential election is on the horizon. Can I buy a coin for Donald Trump or Joe Biden?
Despite pretty much every U.S. Presidential candidate (including Trump) disliking crypto, there is no dearth of President-related crypto projects.
Decrypt decided to take a look at the most notable U.S. election themed crypto projects. From official NFT projects made by former presidents to conspiracy theorist meme coins claiming that Biden is a lizard—President-related projects have it all.
Trump shared the Collect Trump Cards campaign through his Truth Social account back in December 2022. The project sold 45,000 trading card style NFTs ranging from "Statue of Liberty" Trump to "This Is What Happens if You Don’t Vote for Me" Trump at $99 a pop. Each NFT purchase entered you into a sweepstake for a Zoom call or a cocktail with the former President. Or, if you decided to buy 45 NFTs, you were guaranteed a gala dinner with Trump—which appears to have actually happened.
The first series sold out in less than 24 hours, netting him $4.4 million. He couldn't resist so came back for more in April 2023, releasing 47,000 NFTs again at $99 each with similar sweepstakes for Zoom calls and in-person meet-and-greets. This caused the original series to drop 50% in value in a matter of hours.
In December 2023 Trump added to the collection—this time with a whole lot more supply. 100,000 NFTs were minted at $99 each, again with special benefits for bulk buyers. There’s even a special edition that comes with a physical piece of the suit the former president wore for his mugshot.
But just like last time, this influx of volume into the Trump NFT market caused the previous collections to drop in value. As of this writing, the floor price was sitting at just over $600.
The "MAGA memecoin" with the ticker TRUMP launched in August 2023. While this project wasn't officially supported by the former President, they did airdrop a Donald Trump-labeled crypto wallet $7,100 of the token.
The token saw very little movement throughout 2023 until Trump began to steamroll through the Republican primaries in 2024 which boosted its value. It’s risen from 19 cents in November to now more than $2 per token.
On the MAGA memecoin website, it claims to donate 0.33% of each transaction to U.S. veterans and child rescue charities. Every Tuesday they host a Twitter Spaces to discuss all things Trump… and to hype their coin of course.
Ah, our old friends at FTX. During the 2020 elections, the exchange created futures contracts for people to bet on whether Trump would win or lose the election. There were similar contracts for Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Michael Bloomberg, and Elizabeth Warren. FTX claimed that the value of each token resembled Trump's expected chance of reelection (i.e. if the token was valued at $0.43 he had a 43% chance of winning).
Most news outlets announced that Biden had won by November 7th, resulting in the contract for Trump to win plummeting to $0.007. However, due to Trump's controversial attempt to get the election overturned, FTX allowed people holding TRUMP and TRUMPWIN to hold onto their election bets until February 1st—12 days after Biden was inaugurated.
Unsurprisingly (or surprisingly, depending on who you ask) the election was not overturned, Biden was made president and those still holding contracts officially lost.
The Biden token has had a rough ride. Originally launching in October 2021, it saw moderate success featuring on CoinGecko's top gainers tab and launching a now-defunct block explorer called BidenScan. But by the end of 2021, the project went all “Sleepy Joe” (a derisive nickname Trump used to attack his opponent during the 2020 election) on the community and was abandoned by the devs.
Fortunately, by January 2024, the community took over and pumped new life into it with a new social media account and new website. This caused the project to wake up and increase by 1,488% in just a few days—albeit with a market cap of $347,000.
Yeah, you read that correctly. This crack-fueled (the roadmap includes a “smoke crack 2 earn” leaderboard) meme coin launched in October 2023 and its supporters seemingly believe that Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, President Joe Biden, and other prominent world figures are actually reptiles. This conspiracy was popularized by conspiracy theorist David Icke, who is a vocal supporter of the project and even joined them on a number of Twitter spaces.
ReptilianZuckerBidenBartcoin's website is pretty crazy. It's full of multi-coloured text spewing conspiracy theories from Monster Energy containing "demonic energy" to AI trying to push a woke agenda, mixed in with popular conspiracy memes.
The roadmap includes goals such as creating a "smoke crack 2 earn leaderboard," beginning intergalactic discoveries, and hosting an event in Davos once it hits a $1 billion market cap.
As of this writing, the tokens are worth $0.002417, according to CoinGecko.
The RON Token launched in May 2023, presumably the work of supporters of former presidential candidate and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Now that Ron DeSantis has dropped out of the presidential race, this project looks very dated. The site still features a pre-written press release in anticipation of Ron DeSantis winning the 2024 election.
"The American people have cast their votes, and the results are in. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida has secured his place as the 47th President of the United States," the release states. "Governor Ron DeSantis's win in the 2024 Presidential race was significantly boosted by the endorsement of Elon Musk, one of the most influential figures in the tech industry."
The team has not tweeted since January 15th, six days before DeSantis left the race. Unsurprisingly the project has fallen from its highs found in May 2023, plummeting 81% in the 24 hours that DeSantis withdrew from the race. As of this writing, it’s gone all the way to zero.
Oddsmakers think Michelle Obama is the next most likely candidate for presidency after Trump and Biden. And, if you'd acted fast enough you could have owned an NFT of the ball gown she wore to the presidential inauguration in 2009.
Back in July 2022, fashion designer Jason Wu released an NFT of the former first lady's 2009 inaugural ball gown. The owner could "digitally wear" the gown in a photo as well as gain two tickets to Wu's fashion show with backstage access. It sold for 6 ETH (just over $13,000) in August 2022.
That's enough normalcy, back to the crypto degens. Launched in 2023, this project combines Harry Potter, former President Obama, and Sega video game character Sonic with deranged memes for some reason.
With the misleading ticker BITCOIN, they've managed to hit a market cap over $56M. All while they sell merch on the side. At the time of writing, the meme coin is trading for about $0.05, according to Etherscan.
Clearly, the world of U.S. presidential election themed crypto projects has it all. From officially backed NFT projects to the most degenerate meme coins you've ever seen in your life.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.
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