Renowned U.S. entrepreneur Mark Cuban has voiced his frustration over President Donald Trump’s launch of the Official Trump meme coin on the weekend before his inauguration.

The Dallas Mavericks owner called the move a setback for crypto’s legitimacy, suggesting it undermines ownership and promotes speculation.

Cuban Slams Trump’s Meme Coin Move

The billionaire, a mainstay of the popular reality show “Shark Tank,” took to X on January 20 to express his disapproval of the President’s meme coin rollout, labeling it as “self-serving” and “the biggest bunch of nonsense” he had ever encountered in crypto.

Cuban argued that initiatives like Trump’s were harmful to the industry’s reputation as they prioritized risk-taking over value creation.

“This is the biggest bunch of self serving Bullsh*t I have ever heard. In your world there is no ownership. Just speculation,” he said.

Furthermore, the businessman hinted that the launch could open doors for scammers targeting crypto newbies, adding that the incoming head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would not be pleased with the development.

In his tirade, Cuban also questioned the value proposition of meme coins like TRUMP, asking, “What is the utility for the buyer?” He went further to label such ventures as gambling in disguise, warning that they could damage efforts to validate cryptocurrencies. “Goodbye whatever hope the crypto industry had of legitimizing itself,” the 66-year-old asserted.

He is not alone in his criticism. Yesterday, former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan decried the speculative nature of meme coins, describing them as a “zero-sum lottery” that often results in a price collapse.

Ever since its introduction last Friday, the TRUMP token has experienced a rollercoaster ride, going from a low of $6.24 to a high of $75.35 to achieve a market cap of more than $15 billion. Currently, it is trading around the $38 level after losing more than half its value following the launch of the First Lady’s own meme coin, MELANIA.

However, with a market cap north of $7 billion, TRUMP is the 28th largest cryptocurrency in the market and #3 among meme coins.

Meme Coin for the Treasury

Interestingly, despite his earlier critique, Cuban floated the idea of creating a meme coin of his own, modeled on Trump’s but under different terms.

The TRUMP token was launched with 80% of its supply withheld by a company linked to the new occupant of the Oval Office. They are set to be unlocked over the next three years, with any revenue derived from trading fees going into the company’s coffers.

However, Cuban’s proposal would see all revenue from the sale of his meme coin go to the U.S. Treasury to help offset the national debt. In this way, he argued, he could turn the speculative nature of such assets into a mechanism for public good. Further, he stated that the wallet address would be public, allowing everyone to track the funds.