Last Friday, Donald Trump released his official memecoin — OFFICIAL TRUMP aka Trump coin.
Since then, Trump coin has skyrocketed over 5,000%:
Trump coin has returned more in 5 days than the S&P 500 did in over three decades. One trader reportedly turned $1.1M into $23M in just 90 seconds trading Trump coin.
And get this. Trump coin is now worth more than $40 billion, the same valuation as Ford (F).
If you think those are reasons enough you should buy Trump coin too, please don’t. You’ll miss the big crypto opportunity of 2025.
The era of memecoins is over. The era of DePin is just beginning.
I’m not saying memecoins like Trump coin will all crash tomorrow.
But understand that the only reason why memecoins have been so popular in the last few years is because there was nothing else happening in crypto. Serious investors completely avoided this industry.
Building a legitimate crypto business in America has been basically illegal. Entrepreneurs who wanted to build real crypto businesses risked jail time.
This put innovation on “pause.” I’d chat with builders at crypto conferences and they’d say things like, “I’d love to build this but I don’t want to go to jail.”
It was a constant regulatory barrage. Crypto banks were shut down by the government. Founders and funds were sued. Protocols were subject to constant surveillance sweeps.
With no regulatory framework to launch real projects that create value, the only incentive was to make speculative meme coins.
“Mememakers” can easily create and launch tokens. But entrepreneurs trying to build real products step in regulatory quicksand. Want to launch a dog token? No problem. Want to build actual financial infrastructure? Here’s your subpoena.
In short, the entire crypto industry was like a beach ball held underwater. Crypto innovation was frozen by hostile regulations. But that’s all changed now.
Donald Trump and the new pro-crypto Congress (comprised of both pro-crypto Democrats and Republicans) are a complete rejection of the anti-crypto folks who’ve dominated government in recent years.
Think of it like taking the handcuffs off thousands of entrepreneurs at once. Expect the coming innovation surge to shock people who think crypto is just about speculation.
Memecoins will continue to exist. After all, anyone can create one with just a few clicks.
But investors now have a much better alternative — real crypto businesses solving real-world problems, aka DePin.
DePin answers the #1 question on every crypto skeptic’s mind: What do we need blockchain for?
DePin stands for (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks).
And it’s all about solving real-world problems using blockchain.
Unlike most of crypto, I can explain how DePin projects work to my mom.
Consider Hivemapper, for example, which is building the next Google Maps.
I love Google Maps Street View feature. But wouldn’t it be even better if it updated every day, not once per year?
This is the problem Hivemapper (HONEY) is trying to solve. It’s creating a live view of the world’s roads.
Hivemapper makes a 4K, high-definition dashcam anyone can buy and attach to their rearview mirror. The camera automatically “maps” the roads as you drive around, while you collect HONEY tokens in return. Hivemapper then feeds these images into its global map. Hivemapper contributors across the globe have already mapped 414 million km worth of roads. It’s growing 4X faster than Google Maps did in its early days.
And Hivemapper now counts three of the world’s top 10 mapping companies as clients. It has a real shot at breaking Google Maps’ monopoly.
Crypto’s superpower is enabling individuals across the world to band together and achieve things only huge corporations could do. DePin puts crypto’s superpower front and center.
Helium pioneered DePin back in 2018. It built the world’s largest Internet of Things network with the help of its worldwide community. Now, there are hundreds of crypto protocols tackling some of the biggest industries on the planet.
Look at this Messari chart showing the rapid growth of various DePin projects in 2024:
Source: Messari
Real crypto businesses solving real-world problems. This is what serious investors with deep pockets like investment banks and hedge funds are interested in. That’s where their dollars will flow to.
I couldn’t be more bullish on DePin as we enter a new era for crypto in America.
If you’re interested, I just wrote a special report on 3 early-stage cryptos to buy in 2025. They all belong to the DePin sector. Click here to read about them.
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I publish fresh research on stocks and crypto every Monday and Friday.
— Stephen McBride, Chief Analyst at RiskHedge
Don’t buy Trump coin. Buy DePin cryptos instead. was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.