Despite once denouncing digital assets, the former and future president Donald Trump is becoming increasingly associated with cryptocurrencies.
Part of the reason for this perceived connection stems from the Republican President-Elect’s substantial crypto portfolio, whose value, at press time on January 10, stands at $11.42 million.
The holdings themselves are interesting as there is but a handful of well-known coins and tokens among their numbers. For example, despite the bullish rhetoric about Bitcoin (BTC), Trump doesn’t hold any BTC.
Donald Trump’s crypto portfolio revealed
Instead of the widely recognizable digital assets, the incoming President holds Ethereum (ETH), wrapped Ethereum (WETH), and his very own MAGA (TRUMP). What is perhaps the strangest fact of the portfolio is that a cryptocurrency called Trog (TROG) – Trump frog – accounts for a whopping 46.5% of the total value of the holdings.
The quaintness of the setup is exacerbated by the fact that TROG – which represents $5.31 million of the $11.42 million portfolio – is, at press time, changing hands at $0.0000261 and has a total market capitalization of $10.9 million.
The four digital assets together account for about $10.1 million of the portfolio, with the remaining dozens of coins and tokens barely crossing over $1 million in value, per the data retrieved on January 10 from Arkham.
Why Donald Trump owns half of all TROG
Examining the changes Trump’s cryptocurrency holdings experienced over time, however, provides some insights into how the overall strangeness came about.
In fact, the President-Elect appears as avid a crypto market participant as Joe Rogan, who, as Finbold reported on January 9, hardly touched his five Bitcoins in about a decade.
Similarly, Trump appears to have done little trading with his digital assets with the last major change to his, for example, Ethereum balance happening in late 2023.
This, however, does not mean that the value of the holdings remained level. Indeed, together with the rest of the cryptocurrency market, Trump’s portfolio has been waxing and waning from about $5 million after the election to highs near $16 million in mid-December.
It also does not mean there have been no changes to the coin and token balances themselves, though these are most likely digital assets sent to the President-Elect’s wallet by third parties.
In crypto, anyone can send tokens to any known wallet, whether invited or not, and small teams sending their cryptocurrency to prominent individuals to boost visibility is something of a classic stunt.
Cryptocurrency traders enthusiastic about President Trump
Finally, though Donald Trump appears relatively disinterested in engaging with the market, cryptocurrency investors have enthusiastically greeted his election victory.
The total digital assets market capitalization skyrocketed after November 6 from relatively stable levels near $2.2 trillion to December highs near $3.7 trillion. Even once the latest volatility is factored in, the total cryptocurrency market cap is about $1 trillion above where it stood ahead of election day.
Given Trump’s rhetoric – such as entertaining the idea for some sort of a national BTC reserve – and the impact his victory already had – SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who is widely disliked among digital assets investors, confirmed he’d resign on January 20 – the reaction and the hopes appear only natural.
Featured image via Shutterstock.
