'This is bad': MAGA voters slam Trump-themed coins as 'pump-and-dump scam'

President Donald Trump was joined by a who's-who of tech CEOs on Inauguration Day 2025, including X.com's Elon Musk, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Meta/Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.

But Trump drew some criticism in the tech world for Trump-themed memecoins announced ahead of the inauguration. As those critics saw it, the memecoins trivialized cryptocurrencies.

According to The Guardian's J. Oliver Conroy, some criticism is also coming from hardcore MAGA voters.

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Conroy, in article published on January 31, reports, "After a brief bubble as speculators raced to buy them, both Trump coins have mostly plummeted in value. Within the online MAGA community — which has a certain degree of overlap with crypto enthusiasts — some feel betrayed by the president's embrace of what some conservatives view as little better than a penny-stock pump-and-dump scam."

Conroy notes that memecoins are "considered the riskiest and least reputable form of mainstream cryptocurrency."

"Unlike traditional cryptocurrencies that are 'mined' and used in a blockchain," Conroy explains, "memecoins cannot be used as electronic currency and are generally regarded as having no enduring value. They are 'minted' to exploit a viral moment."

Nic Carter, a Trump supporter and cryptocurrency investor, believes the Trump-themed memecoins are bad for cryptocurrencies.

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Carter told the New York Post, "Now, on the cusp of getting some liberalization of crypto regulations in this country, the main thing people are thinking about crypto is, 'Oh, it's just a casino for these memecoins.' It does the opposite of validating us, it makes it look completely unserious."

On a conservative Reddit page, one of the users posted, "Can anyone make a cogent argument in favor of this? This is bad, and looks bad."

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Read The Guardian's full article at this link.