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An unseemly cash grab, a rug pull, a distraction from legitimate work. 

That’s how some of the crypto faithful are describing the president’s new meme coin, $Trump (TRUMP-OFFICIAL-USD). But to think that Trump's shenanigans are separate from the crypto industry is to misunderstand why many people cling to the enterprise. 

Crypto supporters might believe Trump is making them look bad. But that’s just blame shifting, a defense mechanism to disown the most unsavory parts of a whole — something we saw during the downfall of FTX. Which, of course, was supposed to be the start of some industry rehabilitation, a crypto purification process that sheds its worst aspects. 

But Trump is here to remind us that the raw, moneymaking cash machine is not a distraction from the crypto industry but a reflection of it. The meme-ness IS the industry. That’s the real, tangible part of crypto, the ultimate use case. The serious people trying to put distance between their crypto work and $Trump's non-economic purpose cling to the promise of financial innovation and inclusion. That's a delusion. Some might even call it shame. But it's still a few steps behind self-reflection.

Trump's YOLO token is representative of his broader political appeal. Trump doesn't need to sugarcoat his ambition or pretend to aspire to higher-minded aims. $Trump isn't a currency, it's another one of his trading cards. It isn't designed to uplift the unbanked or liberate working people from the centralized financial system. As in his political life, Trump's beliefs and rhetoric are crude, and often outrageous, but his supporters accept them as honest, uncorrupted, and even principled. Have fun. Make money. FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT. There is no romanticized financial idea here. Even Melania has $Melania (MELANIA-USD) now.  

During his first four years in office, but less likely for the next four, Trump had a way of putting the broader conservative coalition on the defensive. Even his strongest allies sometimes had to squirm to answer for his most unguarded remarks or his most alienating policies.     

The crypto world is now becoming part of the Washington establishment. And they are falling in line. Why apologize for Trump when you can accept his gifts of attention, permission, and enrichment? Robinhood (HOOD) and Coinbase (COIN) notified their users earlier this week that $Trump is available to trade.

While the president's and first lady’s meme coins were supposedly making a mockery of the respectable crypto industry, Trump named Securities and Exchange Commissioner Mark Uyeda as the agency’s acting chief. In one of his first moves, and on Trump’s second day in office, Uyeda launched a crypto task force dedicated to creating a “sensible regulatory path” without the anti-innovation baggage of the Biden years.

The government’s top financial regulator not immediately responding to a tokenized, meme-ified conflict of interest initiated by the person who just promoted them makes sense. After all, Trump’s original post promoting the coin was light-hearted. 

And the website behind the Trump coin reminds people they are buying expressions of support and a way to engage with ideas, rather than securing an investment.

That hasn’t stopped people from buying in and making money. It won't stop people from losing either.

Hamza Shaban is a reporter for Yahoo Finance covering markets and the economy. Follow Hamza on X @hshaban.

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