Cryptoverse: Trump drubs Biden in meme coins

Donald Trump has taken a commanding lead over Joe Biden - in the world of political meme coins, at least.

Crypto tokens linked to former President Trump have leapt in volume and value in recent weeks as the November US presidential election heaves into view and the arch-rivals prepare for their first public debate.

The universe of the so-called "PolitiFi" tokens is tiny, with a combined market value of about US$1 billion. A majority of those are linked to Trump, who has presented himself as a champion for cryptocurrency although he hasn't offered specifics on his proposed crypto policy.

Of the top 10 political meme coins by market value, seven are based on Trump, with many playing on Trump's Make America Great Again slogan, such as MAGA and MAGA Hat, according to crypto platform CoinGecko, while only one - Jeo Boden - is related to President Biden, CoinGecko data shows.

The largest token linked to a political figure, MAGA, trades under a ticker called TRUMP on exchanges and was launched in late August 2023. Its market value has leapt as high as US$775 million in June from nearly nothing at the start of the year.

By comparison, Jeo Boden, which launched in March this year, jumped to as much as US$648 million days after its launch before gradually sliding to US$87 million.

Forrest Przybysz, a cryptocurrency trader and CEO of Sistine Research, says meme coins by their nature are not only highly speculative but also driven by attention cycles.

"The more attention a token can hold and maintain, usually the higher it's price will go ... he added. "Trump is an attention magnet. Therefore he is the ideal subject for a meme token."

"We should expect price and speculation on a Trump-based meme token to rise as we get closer to the