Donald Trump teaches crypto devotees a valuable lesson

US President Donald Trump should have been a godsend to the mysterious world of cryptocurrency.

Instead, it has been a godsend to him.

A late convert to the cause, Trump marshalled the crypto world behind him during the 2024 election after denouncing the alternate monetary system as “a scam” during his previous tenure as president.

America, he promised, would become the world’s crypto capital.

To achieve that he would loosen regulations, install a crypto-friendly chief to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and ensure widespread acceptance of Bitcoin.

He’s delivered on all counts and amassed a vast fortune along the way.

According to filings released last week, Trump and his family reaped a $US1.4 billion ($2.02 billion) bonanza from crypto ventures alone since his return to the White House.

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But he’s clearly remained a sceptic. For in their crypto dealings, the Trump family has taken the cash up-front, or clipped the ticket on transactions, rather than holding cryptocurrencies as assets.

That’s left them relatively unexposed to the often-violent market moves at a time when their backers have lost enormous sums of money.

In addition to his family’s involvement in World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm run by his sons Donald Jnr and Eric, he pulled in $US636 million from issuing what is known as a meme coin.

Known as $TRUMP it is a token with no fundamental value. Its price has collapsed, leaving a million investors with losses of $US3.8 billion.

But the crypto industry losses aren’t isolated to Trump family ventures.

Across the entire landscape investors are sitting on massive losses.

Having been delivered everything they’ve always craved, widespread acceptance and respectability, Bitcoin devotees have found themselves holding just another asset that has no useful purpose and a questionable future.

No longer a renegade, it’s become an also-ran with little purpose other than as a gambling instrument. And even that is now under threat.

When never means something else

Michael Saylor finally had some good news to trumpet last week.

The stock price of his company Strategy, the world’s biggest corporate owner of Bitcoin, shot up after it raised cash and, to celebrate, Saylor published his latest vision for the future of the cryptocurrency.

Saylor is a man under pressure. His company’s share price has plunged 78 per cent in the past year, even after last week’s rise following the collapse in the price of Bitcoin.

And for a man who just 18 months ago declared “never sell your Bitcoin”, Saylor has been forced to do exactly that.

Last month he began selling small parcels and then,…