Let’s Go Brandon’ Crypto Coin Turns Into Total Dumpster Fire ‘ZERO’ The MAGA-themed coin with dreams of sponsoring a NASCAR team is now circling the drain. https://www.thedailybeast.com/lets-go-brandon-crypto-coin-turns-into-total-dumpster-fire The MAGA-themed “Let’s Go Brandon” Ethereum cryptocurrency has fallen on tough times. So much so that the value of all 330 trillion coins totals just a few thousand dollars combined, according to the trading sites CoinMarketCap and Crypto, a far cry from the days of pro-Trump investors believing they could strike it rich in the ever-complex world of crypto. That represents a 99.5 percent decline over the last 30 days, leaving a singular LGB coin effectively worthless. At the end of last year, the coin, which carries the saying “Let’s Go, Brandon,” spiked in value after it received a boost from D-list TrumpWorld acolytes and found itself being promoted on the hood of NASCAR driver Brandon Brown’s race car. A month prior, the slogan had found its legs when Brown gave a post-victory interview with NBC reporter Kelli Stavast. The crowd could be heard loudly chanting “F*ck Joe Biden,” but the sports reporter mistook the crowd’s words for “Let’s Go Brandon.” From that point forward, it became a pro-Trump rallying cry. From the likes of Florida Republican Governor Ron Desantis, who began using the term “Brandon administration,” to Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) touting the secretly crude anti-Biden phrase, Trumpworld quickly got hooked on saying it in public. A group of enterprising crypto enthusiasts seized on the viral moment by creating their own cryptocurrency and attempting to sponsor the driver’s racing team. Those dreams vaporized in January, when NASCAR abruptly intervened, declaring that it would not allow the sponsorship deal to go through, despite prior approval from a company employee. The coin’s demise followed in short order, even as LGB signed a “two-year, eight-figure” sponsorship agreement with the driver. To some observers, the collapse was a foregone conclusion. “They tried to monetize on a viral outbreak. Did it surprise me when something without value shot up and immediately shot down upon release? No,” said David Silver, an attorney who has represented aggrieved crypto investors since 2014. And though the crypto markets are riddled with scams, according to Tim Swanson—who blogs about crypto and works as head of market intelligence at the blockchain company Clearmatics—the danger to investors is always higher with niche “meme coins.” Larger coins have higher trading volumes, so when a company insider sells a huge amount of their stake, it generally won’t significantly dilute prices for everyone else, he said. With meme coins, however, average investors are at the mercy of insiders “who know exactly when they’re going to sell.” Once they do, he added, the coin’s value effectively “drops to zero.” At the LGB coin’s peak in early January 2022, the coin had a liquidity pool worth north of $6.5 million. (One not familiar with crypto might think of a liquidity “pool” as just that, a large pool of liquid cash flow that the exchange can use if investors want out of their positions, even if there isn’t a buyer on the other side of the table.) That pot of money has since dried up, leaving a liquidity pool of less than $10,000. On Twitter, the organizing group behind LGB pledged to “airdrop” investors a new and improved coin, ostensibly swapping out something worthless for something with an artificially designated value. David Silver, the crypto lawyer, was skeptical. “The free market has already said this is a coin that has no value,” he said. “Simply rebranding and trying again is merely trying to take a second shot at convincing someone to give you value where no value exists.” Some apparent investors seem skeptical as well. One commenter complained in the comment section of LGB’s Twitter page in January that their $15,000 investment had plummeted to just “a couple [of] hundred dollars.” Another expressed alarm that their 73 million coins were worth a measly $1.66 altogether. As of several weeks ago, the team behind LGB was still urging their acolytes to remain patient and loyal. Tweeting from their stated location—“Merica”—they offered up a “Don’t Panic!” meme accompanied by some dubious counsel: “Sometimes you just need to have faith and [hold on for dear life].”
Crypto coin's value plummets following Trump's 'sounds good to me!' endorsement https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-crypto/ According to a report from the Daily Beast, after Donald Trump was gifted with 500 billion crypto tokens by one of his boosters -- and gave a thumbs up to the gift with a "sounds good to me" endorsement -- the value of those tokens began to plummet. The Beast's Noah Kirsch and Zachary Petrizzo reported that the “Let’s Go [Brandon]” tokens were a gift from Trump supporter James Koutoulas that was announced on a podcast where the president was interviewed. After Trump gratefully accepted them -- while also admitting he didn't know how they worked -- their value began a quick descent. "Between noon Wednesday—the day the interview was posted—and early Friday afternoon, the crypto token’s value had fallen nearly 19 percent," the report states. "Trump’s coins are already worth about $10,000 less, now down to $45,000—a minuscule $0.00000009 apiece—though their value could rise dramatically if they take off the way other meme coins have." According to the report, "the coin’s backers intend to use the tokens to support the 'Freedom Truckers,'" of whom Trump claimed, "I’ll tell you what, those groups are the right groups to support… They’re great. They’re great patriots, great people." The Beast report goes on to note, "It’s not clear how a meme coin will accomplish the objectives outlined on the podcast, not to mention that the previous iteration of the cryptocurrency was an absolute disaster." You can read more here.