Trumpcoin and TikTok

Metadata

• Author: kyla scanlon
• Full Title: Trumpcoin and TikTok
• URL: https://kyla.substack.com/p/trumpcoin-and-tiktok?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=91531&post_id=155187443&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=44mvk&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Highlights

• At 9:44 pm ET on Friday, January 17th, the rules of power changed dramatically. Trump and team1 created a multi-billion dollar memecoin a mere few days before his second presidential inauguration. It was extraordinarily successful. By Sunday, Trump and team had tens of billions in paper net worth from pure narrative value and by Monday, he was both president again and one of the world’s richest individuals—entirely through attention-based speculation! (View Highlight)
• • Trump and team created $60b+inpaperwealthatonepoint,asreportedby[KobeissiLetter](https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1881062069086408785),catapultinghiminTop25RichestPeopleintheWorld(thecoinisabout90•Severalotherpeoplealsobecamefabulouslywealthy,with6walletsholdingover$600 million at some point. Almost one million wallets were holding the coin! (View Highlight)
• Within hours, Trumpcoin became the template for narrative-driven wealth creation. • Then, Sunday afternoon, Melania launched her own coin (apparently created by a different team) which created a situation where Trumpcoin money left to go buy Melaniacoin, causing about [$35billiontoevaporatefrom](https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1881396600230318374)Trumpcoin.•ATikTokmemecoinwaslaunchedbyastudentadvisorofTrump,RyanFournier,whorugged(twice)forabout$25 million (and said, “I literally sold because it was going down increasingly”). (View Highlight)
• It’s pump and dump season! It’s simple memecoinonomics:
  1. Hype: A coin launches with buzz and excitement.
  2. FOMO: People pile in, driven by fear of missing out.
  3. Rug Pull: The creators sell their holdings, crashing the price and leaving investors with nothing but narrative. It’s a bit sloppy. It’s a bit embarrassing! It’s extremely effective! (View Highlight)
• Trumpcoin demonstrates the raw power of attention in modern markets. Historically, value creation followed a clear progression:
  1. Capture attention through being a business that sells things that people like (Apple and the iPhone, for example)
  2. Convert attention to business improvement (take money from stock market and build better iPhones)
  3. Build better products, generate real cash flow, and compound value over time. (View Highlight)
• This was the Warren Buffett playbook—attention as a means to an end, with cash flow and tangible assets at its core. The basic formula is attention → improvement → value → compound. Trumpcoin doesn’t bother with those middle steps. Its process is simple:
  1. Capture attention.
  2. Convert directly into token value. (View Highlight)
• The GameStop saga showed us how collective attention can move markets. But at the presidential level, it rewrites the rules of wealth creation, rewrites the rules of power and is really the final nail in the coffin for showcasing attention as the ultimate driver of value in modern markets. (View Highlight)
• This moment in time is quite unique because of:
  1. The speed at which wealth was created (36 hours to $70b+)
  2. The scale (if it goes to $2,100 a share it will surpass the value of bitcoin)
  3. The source (direct political influence conversion!)
  4. The integration (platform threats + token launch + power) This is compound power, not just compound interest, and I think all of this happening at the same time as the TikTok ban is important. (View Highlight)
• In April 2024, a unified Congress passed a TikTok ban. A unified Supreme Court also ruled that TikTok US divesting itself has to happen in order for it to continue operating. Biden kicked the problem to Trump (I wrote about that here). Trump said he would ensure TikTok would be okay (despite him trying to ban it a few years ago). Trump also met with China’s President Xi and was like, “That was awesome, we are best friends, we have plans for TikTok and a lot of other things.” TikTok did go offline (as planned) on Sunday! But then it came back online the same day, thanking President Trump for bringing it back! Which was somewhat illegal of them! (View Highlight)
• And now Trump wants to buy 50% of TikTok and says he will surpass the Supreme Court and all of Congress somehow to reinstate the app, which is a pretty big swing! (View Highlight)
• TikTok’s story is part of the same feedback loop driving Trumpcoin. Owning TikTok would give Trump: • Platform Control: Access to millions of users and their attention. • Narrative Domination: A direct pipeline to shape public perception. • Economic Leverage: A tool to potentially amplify Trumpcoin’s value and consolidate wealth. TikTok illustrates how global platforms are battlegrounds for attention and power. And not to 4D chess this too much, but it’s multiplicative power dynamics. Think about how this could compound: (View Highlight)
• What happens when you control:
  1. Political position via executive power, regulatory threat capability, global influence, with instant market impact
  2. Platforms via attention distribution, narrative shaping, and reality perception (plus user behavior data)
  3. Token wealth via instant value creation, global accessibility, and pure narrative
  4. Market power via price movements, trading dynamics, and finanical leverage (View Highlight)
• It’s not just the money. It’s the power! It’s attention through the memecoin and Tiktok, political power with the inauguration and US presidency, and money through the tech CEO alignment. It’s all perfectly situated and absolutely explosive at the present moment, and that’s a machine that is extraordinarily valuable. (View Highlight)
• Political Position ➝ Market Threats ➝ Token Value ➝ More Control ➝ Repeat.
  1. Political Position Creates Leverage: If you can threaten to ban platforms (or people or enact sweeping tariffs, you have immediate leverage. If you do it through executive orders and ignore checks and balances, there is no traditional regulatory process needed. The threats alone move markets and create opportunities through immediate power projection.
  2. Threats Create Market Opportunity: The markets are going to be very reactive to any political signals, and any sort of threat becomes a negotiation tool. All sorts of opportunities come from that.
  3. Market Moves Amplify Token Power: You could argue that political action could drive Trumpcoin price, and a higher token price could mean more political influence and bigger political moves, because money is very much power.
  4. Token Wealth Enables More Control: You could use Trumpcoin money to buy 50% of TikTok and use that platform to capture more attention, driving Trumpcoin price even higher (who knows if this will happen, but anything is in the realm of possibility). Infrastructure control expands. The power base solidifies. The attention distribution, the narrative shaping, the reality perception are all tremendously powerful. (View Highlight)
• This is the birth of the Attention Singularity, where power, narrative, and wealth merge into one self-reinforcing system. (View Highlight)
• Think of the Attention Singularity like a black hole, but instead of gravity, it’s attention that becomes so powerful it warps reality itself. We’re watching the birth of a system where attention directly creates wealth (like $60B from Trumpcoin in 36 hours), wealth instantly enables power (potential TikTok acquisition), power captures more attention (platform control), and each cycle gets faster and stronger than the last. (View Highlight)
• Traditional limits like physical constraints, geographic boundaries, or institutional checks stop mattering because digital attention moves instantly and globally, while narrative overpowers physical reality. Once this feedback loop starts, it’s self-reinforcing: attention creates wealth, wealth enables power, power shapes perceived reality, and reality drives more attention. (View Highlight)
• It’s the financialization of everything. The world is for sale! Each turn of this cycle concentrates power faster than the last. For example, bribery became a bit easier! Favors are as simple as buying Trumpcoin! That’s a wild thing! Some people say that it’s more like a ‘fan coin’ and that you can buy the coin to show support to Trump, which sure! But - (View Highlight)
• The more we treat things with no economic output as valuable, the less we’ll actually produce. This isn’t just about crypto or memes - it’s about what happens when narrative production outpaces real production. It creates a deeper split of people (I am forgoing nuance in favor of simplicity):
  1. Attention Harvesters: Create wealth through narrative and accumulate power rapidly wth minimal physical constraints
  2. Real World Maintainers: The people who keep society functioning and deal with physical constraints. These people essential but undervalued. (View Highlight)
• The rules of the game are changing: • Speed: Wealth is created faster than regulation can react. • Scale: Attention-based systems amplify power exponentially. (View Highlight)
• The implications are clear: we’re entering an era where wealth is created faster than regulation can respond, and reality itself is shaped by speculation. There are a few things to keep in mind: • For investors: Memecoins like Trumpcoin show the growing dominance of speculative assets. If you’re an investor, this signals a shift: attention is now a measurable driver of market value. You should probably have a memecoin strategy, if that’s of interest. Position yourself accordingly. • For consumers: The rise of platforms and tokens driven by narrative suggests that your attention is more valuable than ever. Be mindful of how you spend it as every click and view reinforces this economy (View Highlight)