Donald Trump conviction sparks volatility in political memecoins

Following United States former president Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, political memecoins associated with him experienced significant volatility.

On May 30, the Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records. The records in question pertained to his lawyer Michael Cohen paying an adult actress $130,000 before the 2016 presidential election.

Trump’s sentencing is scheduled for July, and he could face up to four years in prison. This trial marks the first time a former U.S. president has been tried and convicted on criminal charges.

As the Manhattan jury delivered its verdict, the token FreeTrump ($TRUMP) surged by 1,019% in 24 hours to reach $0.042, while Jeo Boden (BODEN) saw its price stay almost still at $0.294. As previously reported, BODEN was launched following Trump’s misspelling Joe Biden’s name and rose when acknowledged by the former president with the following comment:

I don’t like that investment.

Furthermore, MAGA (TRUMP) token — also held by a Trump-related wallet with 580,000 tokens — rose by 16.25% to $16.25. MAGA VP (MVP), a token suggesting a connection to Trump’s potential vice presidential pick, dropped by 10.7% to around $0.51.

The overall political finance (PolitiFi) memecoin market capitalization increased by 15.4% to approximately $1.8 billion, as reported by CoinGecko.

The battle for the crypto votes

As ReadWrite recently reported, Trump expressed his support for the burgeoning cryptocurrency industry. He went as far as to express the belief that the United States should lead this industry:

I am very positive and open minded to cryptocurrency companies and all things related to this new and burgeoning industry. […] Our country must be the leader in the field, there is no second place.

The former United States President also recently pledged to exonerate Ross Ulbricht the day after his election — the founder of Silk Road, the world’s first deep web black market. This apparently translated into mounting pressure on Democrat presidential candidate and current U.S. president Joe Biden.

Previously Democrats have been largely opposed to cryptocurrencies, but with the upcoming elections inching closer there was a shift. Earlier this week, news spread that President Joe Biden has begun seeking input from the cryptocurrency industry amid the presidential race. This crypto-friendly approach is a significant departure from when Biden proposed imposing a 30% tax on crypto mining power.