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This BBC podcast is supported

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by ads outside the UK. Hello

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and thank you for downloading the

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more or less podcast with the

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programme that looks at the numbers

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in the news and I'm Charlotte

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McDonald. It's been a busy

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week for Donald Trump. The

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office of President of the United

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States. He was sworn in as

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the 47th President of the

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United States. Signed a wallop

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of executive orders. The Golden

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Age of America begins. and

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launched his own currency. Well,

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a currency of sorts. Yes,

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Donald Trump has reduced something

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called a mean coin, and

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the headlines got pretty excited

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about it, with the telegraph

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stating, Trump becomes one of

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world's richest men after $43

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billion crypto coin launch. But is

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this really true? And what is a

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mean coin anyway? Let's start

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with the BBC's cyber correspondent Joe

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Tidy, who is the proud owner

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of some Malania coin, the First Lady's

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own venture into mean coin land. A

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mean coin is a bit of a joke,

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cryptocurrency really. People can create

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coins themselves, anyone can do

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it, and there are thousands

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of them. Cryptocurrency is a

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digital form of currency created using

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encryption algorithms. sexy, huh? Some, such

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as Bitcoin, are able to be

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used like regular currency in some

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places. Meme coins don't work quite

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like that. There are shops and online

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services where they'll trade Bitcoin for

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everything from coffees to houses in

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some countries, but with Meme coins

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there's no real purpose to them.

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They're just sort of fun, and

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they're a way of making money,

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essentially. People can speculate on these

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coins, and they go up and

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down in value quite wildly. The

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T's and C's for Trump's meme

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coin are totally explicit about this.

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They say it's intended to

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function as an expression of

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support for and engagement with

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the ideals and beliefs. embodied

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by the symbol Trump and the

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associated artwork. And they're definitely not.

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An investment opportunity, investment contract, or

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security of any type. This might

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be the intention. You can be

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the judge, but they are definitely

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being traded as if they are

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a financial asset. The basic concept

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for buying mien coins is to

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trade them in the hopes that

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someone, somewhere, will pay more for

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them than you. But this is

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all a risk, a speculation as

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the Victorians would call it. The

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value of any cryptocurrency is constantly

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in flux, and meme coins are

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especially volatile. The idea is that

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there is scarcity. There are only

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a certain number of coins that

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are ever going to be minted

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and created, and if I own

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some of those coins now, then

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someone will want to pay more

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in the future. It's basically

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a bit like old-fashioned coin collecting.

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The new numismatists, if you will.

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Each of these little trump coins

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is unique. They cannot be replicated.

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However, instead of physical binders with

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meticulously ordered coins, lovingly displayed, you

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get a virtual wallet and a

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little graphic of a coin with

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Trump's face on it. Although it

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turns out that there are right

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faf to actually get hold of.

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It was a real process and

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it just reminded me that this

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isn't really for the kind of

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the faint-hearted Malania supporters. These are

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people who are already in cryptocurrency

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who potentially are trying to make

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money. But how much money has

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this whole enterprise actually made Trump?

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Is it really 43 billion dollars

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like the telegraph said? That's the

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claim, but it's a dubious claim

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at best. I'm

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Molly White. I am an independent

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writer and researcher of the cryptocurrency

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industry and the tech industry more

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broadly, and I write the citation-needed

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newsletter. The calculations the newspapers used

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to get to the billions of

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dollar values are fairly simple. They

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rely on... on two basic things.

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First, the fact that a billion

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Trump coins would exist within the

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next three years. Most cryptocurrencies have

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a total cap of supply. So

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for example, Bitcoin will never have

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more than 21 million bitcoins. That's

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the total cap. And the same

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thing is true with the Trump

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meme coin where they've only issued

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200 million of them to date,

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but eventually they will issue up

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to 1 billion of these Trump

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tokens on sort of a schedule.

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Only a small proportion of these

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coins are available to the public.

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Most of them have been allocated

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to companies affiliated with Donald Trump.

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These own 80% of the coins.

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Next thing, how much are they

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worth? Well, you can't buy anything

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with them. So they're only worth

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what people are willing to pay

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for them. The price of any

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given cryptocurrency token is based on

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the going price on a cryptocurrency

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exchange, which is usually, you know,

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the price that these tokens most

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recently traded hands or the offer

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prices on these tokens. This price

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has been all over the place.

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It peaked at over $70 per

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coin over the weekend, at time

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of recording. It's sitting in the

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30s. The two numbers, the supply

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and the price, are how you

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get to a massive valuation. There's

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something called the fully diluted valuation

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of a token, and that is

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multiplying the token price by the

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total future possible number of tokens

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that could circulate. So that again

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is how the prices of, you

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know, $53 billion are being achieved

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because there could in the future

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be up to one billion Trump

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tokens circulating and at a price

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of, say, $53 you multiply that

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by that billion and you get

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the fully diluted valuation. News outlets

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have just multiplied the Trump mean

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coin price by the theoretical. number

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of all coins he could have

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a share of. That's 80% of

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1 billion, so 800 million. Most

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of these coins do not exist

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on the market yet, and there

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is absolutely no guarantee that the

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existing Trump tokens will retain their

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value in a market that is

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famously floppy. Trump's businesses also have

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to be incredibly careful how they

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sell off their 80% share, as

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flooding the market could destroy the

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value completely. There's also the issue

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that a lot of these coins

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were not bought with actual dollars.

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Instead, people use other cryptocurrency, such

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as one called salana, to purchase

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them. And so then you have

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this question of, okay, so is

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every Trump token actually worth X

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amount of salana, and then is

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that amount of salana actually worth

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the amount of dollars? At very

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small numbers, it's fairly safe to

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assume that a major cryptocurrency like

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Solana could be cashed out for

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dollars to the extent that the

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price reflects, but once you get

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above large numbers, especially when you're

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talking about billions of US dollars,

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those assumptions very quickly fall apart.

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So, has Trump earned himself 43

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billion dollars? He has not. We

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don't really know if Trump has

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made money from this venture yet,

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or if he will in the

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future. Forbes magazine, who do the

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big list of billionaires, currently say

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his meme coin project adds zero

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dollars to his net worth. Trump

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and his companies might have sold

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some of their cut already for

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millions. They might sell more in

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the future for billions. We don't

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know. Whatever he makes, he somehow

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managed to use his popularity to

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create that money from basically thin

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air. Saying that. Saying that. it

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does seem like someone has already

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made some serious money. According to

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bubble maps... a company that tracks

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the public crypto data one minute

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after the Trump coins were released,

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one anonymous account known only as

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6Q SC2, bought millions of dollars

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worth of the meme coin before

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selling most of them later for

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a massive profit. One estimate says

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they might have made more than

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85 million dollars in a couple

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of days. As for Joe, he's

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going to cash in quick and

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make sure his potentially newfound meme

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coin wealth or keep him as

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grounded as ever. Oh, I won't.

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I will retire to an island

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somewhere and forget a movie. Uh-huh.

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Maybe whole booking that flight. Joe's

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token value has dropped from $30

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to $8. Maybe enough for a

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pack of peanuts on the plane.

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Well, that's all we have time

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for this week. Thanks to Molly

8:51

White and Joe Tidy. Do remember

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to keep your thoughts and comments

8:56

coming in to more or less

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at BBC.co. UK. yoga is more

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