Airdrop Army

In a new twist in the memecoin verse, a second Trump era might swing bearish for the wild west of memecoins. So claims Omid Malekan, Columbia Business School’s own crypto whisperer. Malekan piped up on Oct. 26, calling these coins “economic populism”—a fist-in-the-air against what he describes as the “grifty tokenomics of VC-backed insider coins.” And in the Twitter battleground, he wasn’t the only one casting shade on memecoins under Trump’s potential return.

Right now, memecoins hold a fat $61 billion market cap, propped up by retail rebels who thrive in chaos. But Malekan posits a Republican sweep might pry the memecoin from its throne. Here’s his angle: a Trump comeback could lift the lid on token airdrops and ICOs, stirring up “token sanity” and sinking the memecoin hype machine. With watchdogs like Senator Warren and SEC Chair Gensler currently holding the leashes, memecoins are kinda cozy in the rebellious corner, but this could shift fast.

Memecoins: The Anti-Reg Crowd’s Darling?

Backing up Malekan, Castle Island’s Nic Carter threw his hat into the ring, hinting that memecoins might lose their luster if regulatory heat eases. Under Trump, regulatory guards may chill out, meaning retail could slide over to shiny DApps instead. Carter’s stance? Memecoins thrive because they’re a cryptic fist against what he calls “the oppressive SEC regime.”

But Murad Mahmudov, the ever-bullish memecoin oracle, disagrees. For him, politics is just white noise. Memecoin chasers, he says, “don’t care for politicking” and ride the memecoin wave because of the global moneysplosion—banks printing green like there’s no tomorrow. Mahmudov claims this fiat geyser will flow under Trump, so memecoiners aren’t about to ditch their speculative digs.

For Retail, It’s Memecoins or Busted Pumps

Crypto trading guru Jordan Fish, aka “Cobie,” jumps in with a hard truth: the average Joe simply can’t get in early on “legit” tokens, which are pre-cornered by whales and VCs. Fish argues that memecoins are accessible and offer potential price pumps that outstrip the highly vetted, high-cap tokens listed on big exchanges. The real deal, he says, would be an SEC tweak allowing regular degens to hop into decentralized token projects, but Cobie doubts the agency will go that far.

Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign speechifying, promising the “crypto capital” of the world, has caught some ears. A recent Coinbase poll hints that swing-state crypto users might throw a vote to whichever candidate loosens the leash on crypto.