The PoliFi space will be big this year, with the U.S. Presidential election coming in November, with projects such as MAGA memecoins, TRUMP and more set to take the emerging space by storm.
Essentially, political meme coins and PoliFi tokens are based on politicians, such as Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, and even Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
As the 2024 US Presidential campaign enters its crunch months ahead of November, this is a space to watch.
PoliFi Will Be Big: Summary
While the PoliFi space is still in its infancy, the sudden recent surge of memecoins has shown how this could be a space to watch. Politics in this day and age — especially with candidates like Donald Trump and Kamala Harris who both bring their own unique character traits that make the 2024 Presidential race, is creating a ripe ground for creating hilarious memes.
Key Highlights
- PoliFi coins are a new category of meme coins. We’ll look at their potential and how the intersection of internet culture and politics could prove to be a boost for these projects.
- Trump’s pro-crypto stance has the crypto markets excited about a potential second term for Trump. We take a look at his speech at the recent Bitcoin Conference.
- We look at a number of projects that use the former President as their inspiration, including TRUMP, American Coin, MAGA, MAGA Hat, and Doland Tremp.
- Prediction markets are of growing significance in this race. We take a look at Polymarket and the bets they have on the wider space and how decentralized prediction markets could be an important factor for some of these PoliFi coins.
What is PoliFi/PolitiFi?
PoliFi, or “PolitiFi” as some refer to it, refers to the emerging sector that combines politics and DeFi (decentralized finance). Another way to think of PoliFi is as a category of memecoin with a political theme. Although the tokens listed here claim they have no affiliation with the US government or the Trump campaign, they are no doubt riding the coattails of the current political environment and offer a way for the crypto community to have a laugh (and potentially make some decent gains speculating on election outcomes).
Recently, Coingecko gave PoliFi tokens their own page, highlighting their increasing prominence. Although PoliFi is a catch-all term for the space, some of these projects are more serious political, while others are pure memes. We’ll leave it up to our readers to decide which ones will be better additions to an investor’s portfolio.
PoliFi Sector Could Be Swept Up in the Next Bull Run
The Polifi sector could be significant if we see a bull run emerge between now and the US election. If there is a significant shift in the polls or market sentiment, we could see PoliFi coins absolutely pump.
Trump’s Crypto-Friendly Campaign Strategy
At the Bitcoin Conference 2024, Trump announced that his administration would pursue crypto-friendly regulations to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet.” by bolstering U.S. Bitcoin mining efforts.
“Bitcoin is going to the moon and I want America to be the nation that leads the way. If we don’t do it, China and others will do it. So, let’s do it first, and let’s do it right. We cannot let China dominate. I want the US to be first in technology, science, manufacturing, artificial intelligence (AI), and space.” – Source
Although China banned Bitcoin mining in 2021, the news that the US will potentially seek to bolster its crypto and tech sectors is good news for PolitiFi coins and the broader crypto sector.
Trump also appears to throw in technology, science, manufacturing, and AI into this statement, so it should be taken with a pinch of salt. Although certainly tangential sectors, they are also distinct and separate spaces with their own requirements to remain competitive with China.
Nevertheless, the crypto market is largely behind Trump, with Republicans shown to be pro-crypto, so this could be an attempt to appeal to Trump’s base and appeal to single-issue voters that put crypto at the top of their priorities when deciding who to vote for.
Trump’s Pro-Crypto Stance and its Impact on the Crypto Markets
In his Bitcoin Conference speech, Trump said he would establish a crypto and Bitcoin presidential advisory council and pledged to make America a “Bitcoin mining powerhouse.”
After the announcement at the Bitcoin Conference, Bitcoin saw its price soar past $70,000, showing the market’s positive reaction to the speech.
If Trump wins the election in November, we could see more gains in the crypto markets — especially for PoliFi tokens.
Harris and the Democrat’s Anti-Crypto Stance
Since 2020, the Biden administration has arguably created a hostile environment for the crypto sector. In a Presidential order, President Biden sought to review the crypto market to create a “Comprehensive Framework for Responsible Development of Digital Assets.”
Many in the crypto community criticized this and argued that it was regulated by enforcement via the SEC instead of creating tailored regulations that cater to the unique qualities of crypto and blockchain technology.
While there is the potential for Harris and Walz to shift their policy stance from the one set by Biden, it appears that crypto regulations are not at the forefront of their policy agenda. This is frustrating for crypto advocates who want to see the U.S. make strides in creating a more friendly environment for the sector.
Top PoliFi Ecosystem Coins
Below is our review of the top PoliFi ecosystem coins. Some are more serious projects than others, and some lean more heavily on memes and internet culture.
Needless to say, investments in these projects offer no guarantee of any returns, so think carefully before investing.
TRUMP Token’s Meteoric Rise
The first of our picks for PoliFi coins is MAGA Memcoin. This token is based on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and puts 2016’s Make America Great Again slogan at the center of the project. MAGA Memecoin has seen tremendous growth already, having made gains of 20,802% since its launch in 2023, with a current market cap of $147 million.
The project is available to buy on the project’s website, where users can buy MAGA tokens in exchange for either Ethereum or Solana. MAGA also has a charitable component, with its website showing links for token holders to make donations to veteran groups and child services. Donations, the website claims, can be verified on every.org.
Army veterans and child services are long-standing issues of concern for the Republican party, so it makes sense for the MAGA token to allow its backers to donate to these causes to help propel the token’s popularity among Trump’s supporters.
American Coin ($USD)
This project is a pure meme. If you want to know what we mean, take a look at the screenshot of the project’s website below:
This obviously plays up the irony factor here. The bald eagle, Ford truck, burger, and the classic figure of an “all-American” woman surround footage of U.S. servicemen doing military exercises. To top it off, the cursor is an Apache helicopter.
Jokes and memeability are at the front and center of this project, and it leans heavily on internet culture for its marketing strategy. American Coin’s ticker is even $USA, just to really drive the point home, and to top it off, the project’s whitepaper is a link to a PDF copy of the U.S. Constitution.
Regarding market performance, American Coin is still in its relatively early stages, having launched in April 2024. Therefore there is huge potential upside for this project, especially if the PoliFi and memecoin markets continue to grow from strength to strength.
MAGA ($TRUMP)
MAGA ($Trump) coin has seen tremendous growth already, having made gains of 20,802% since its launch in 2023, with a current market cap of $147 million.
In addition to being a token that users can buy with Ethereum via Uniswap, the project is also AI-powered with a number of integrated features.
One of these is called MAGA GPT which uses ChatGPT to educate users on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, as well as provide content that is “less offensive or dangerous.” One of the criticisms leveled against ChatGPT for alleged censorship.
Another AI tool, MAGA AI Draw, allows users to generate unique images that can be used to create NFT projects. Examples include images of Donald Trump riding a bear for example.
Doland Tremp ($TREMP)
Dolend Tremp is a parody of PoliFi projects as a whole. With a website full of deliberately misspelled names and words, this PoliFi coin appears to be mocking how Trump speaks in a way that is reminiscent of Eric Cartman from Southpark.
With the wide range of views out there regarding Trump, this project could be a winner. The website features a series of meme formats with Trump drawn in a childlike way with a wavy body and head. It was interesting to see this coin pump in relation to the Joe Biden meme coin “Jeo Boden” after the outcome of the Trump vs Biden debate.
The platform is run on the Solana blockchain, so buyers would need some SOL in order to get hold of some.
MAGA Hat ($MAGA)
This is another Trump project that centers its focus on the Make America Great Again hat—not to be confused with MAGA, which we reviewed above.
MAGA Hat is disappointingly light on the memes and its website focuses much of its attention on reminding readers of the 2016 campaign, as well as a puppet show depicting Trump’s recent assassination attempt. It also features an AI-generated voice of Trump urging users to sign up and “join something huge”.
This is an Ethereum-based coin, so buyers will need a wallet with some ETH in order to get hold of some MAGA Hat.
What Factors Should I Consider When Choosing a PoliFi Wallet?
Most PoliFi projects covered in this review are Ethereum or Solana-based. Therefore it is best to set up a wallet that can accommodate both of these token types. We recommend Best Wallet or MetaMask.
Most importantly, any wallet setup should follow best-practice guidelines, such as storing your private key in an offline format to ensure your tokens are safe in the event your desktop or mobile device is compromised by hackers.
The same goes for your recovery phrase. Keep this safe and offline, as without it you will lose access to your wallet if you misplace your private key information. We cover these important steps in more detail in our article on The Best Crypto Wallets.
Prediction Markets are Boosting PoliFi Tokens
As November gets closer and the polls shift as the Presidential race goes on, prediction markets (AKA betting markets) are changing the odds depending on the state of the race, market sentiment and polling data.
What are Prediction Markets?
Prediction markets are used by those who want to bet on the outcome of events, such as Presidential elections. The lower the odds offered, the more likely something is to happen; the higher the odds, the less likely.
Prediction markets act as an aggregator of public opinion. They take data from many different sources and use it to create more accurate predictions.
After a bet is placed, the odds can continue to change, and users are allowed to cash out early if they think the outcome will be different from what they predicted.
Prediction markets in the mainstream
The largest prediction market platform is Polymarket. They have a range of bets on the current race, such as the 2024 Presidential election winner, the popular vote winner, and even how many times Trump will tweet this week.
The narrative surrounding the emergence of prediction markets such as Polymarket is that the financial incentive for accurate odds, combined with aggregated opinion polling, will mean more accurate predictions. After all, it is in a betting company’s interest to keep odds in line with the most probable outcome.
In 2016, Donald Trump’s odds of winning the election were low, and he was considered the underdog with Hilary Clinton the clear frontrunner. FiveThirtyEight, for example, a news site focused on opinion polls, set Trump’s odds of winning at 29%. With this in mind, it will be interesting to see if prediction market models are more accurate than 2016’s election predictions. You can learn more about this platform and how to use it in our Polymarket Review.
Why Memecoin and PoliFi Tokens are Popular for Prediction Market Speculators
This time around, the two candidates are closer in the polls than in 2016, with Harris having closed much of the lead Trump held at the end of July. It will be interesting to see how these odds change as the race goes on and how this affects the performance of PoliFi projects such as the Trump-themed “Tremp” and Harris-themed”Horris“.
Prediction markets could be used as an indicator of the success of PoliFi tokens, as a Trump victory could have a dramatic effect on their price. Those who took a chance on the former President in 2016 were well compensated for their bets – so prediction markets and the odds they set should be taken with a pinch of salt.
How Crypto Has Spawned Alternative Prediction Markets
There has been an emergence of decentralized prediction markets. The advantage of these is that there tend to be fewer KYC requirements than centralized platforms, so users with a concern for their privacy can rest easy.
This could further increase the links between prediction markets and the crypto space by giving native crypto users a way to get involved in predictive markets.
Conclusion
The PoliFi space is in a perfect position to be a perfect accompaniment to the next bull run, especially altcoin season. If the bull market continues and altcoin season starts between now and November, the space could be ready to explode.
In addition, the prediction markets are something to watch closely if you’re invested in any of these coins, as their changing odds could impact price.
See also: 10 Best Solana Meme Coins to Buy in 2024
FAQs
What is PoliFi and how does it relate to politics and finance?
What impact could political movements like MAGA have on the cryptocurrency market?
Are there any risks associated with investing in PoliFi or similar politically-themed cryptocurrencies?
References
Levin, Matt. “Why Republicans Are Embracing Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies.” Marketplace, 17 July 2024, https://www.marketplace.org/2024/07/17/republicans-crypto-bitcoin-donald-trump/.
“Every.org.” Every.org, https://www.every.org/.
“Politifi.” CoinGecko, https://www.coingecko.com/en/categories/politifi.
