
Trump’s crypto project says it sold $550M in tokens
Donald Trump’s World Liberty Financial crypto project announced it raised $250 million in its second token sale, bringing total sales to $550 million.
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His face isn’t on any U.S. bill, but President Donald Trump is becoming the new face of cryptocurrency. His latest venture and the latest “Trump coin” is $USD1.
How much is the new Trump coin worth? Each $USD1 coin is intended to be worth $1.
$USD1, launched Tuesday by Trump’s World Liberty Financial crypto venture, is a dollar-pegged “stablecoin” fully backed by U.S. Treasuries, dollars and other cash equivalents, the company said in a news release.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that peg their market value to some external reference, according to Investopedia, a financial and investment media website. Their relative stability, compared to other volatile cryptocurrencies, makes them more useful for transactions or for maintaining reserve assets.
The new Trump coin serves a similar purpose as $USDT, or Tether, a stablecoin that is also pegged to the U.S. dollar at a 1:1 ratio. Each $USDT token is claimed to be backed by cash at an equivalent U.S. dollar value.
The launch of $USD1 was preceded by $TRUMP, a “meme coin” Trump launched days before his inauguration. Meme coins generally have no intrinsic value, according to Investopedia.
Unlike $USD1, which is intended to be stable, the value of $TRUMP has consistently depreciated following a massive, short-lived surge. Two days after $TRUMP launched, its value peaked at $69.76 per token. On Friday, its value was $10.22 per token.
Jack Randall is TCPalm’s economy and real estate reporter. You can reach him at jack.randall@tcpalm.com or 904-466-4755.