Livestreamers on Pump.fun placed a golden statue of Donald Trump holding a Bitcoin outside the US Capitol as part of a memecoin stunt.
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Memecoiners plonked a giant golden statue of President Donald Trump holding a Bitcoin outside the US Capitol as part of a Pump.fun livestream stunt on Wednesday, as an ode to the crypto-supporting president.
The statue was placed just opposite Union Square in Washington, DC, on the National Mall that leads up to Capitol Hill, which is also roughly a mile from the White House.
A website for the stunt said it was a tribute to Trump’s “unwavering commitment to advancing the future of finance through Bitcoin and decentralized technologies.”
The statue’s unveiling coincided with the Federal Reserve for the first time this year by 25 basis points, typically seen as bullish for risky assets like crypto, as it lowers the cost of borrowing money.
Trump embraced crypto in his presidential run, leading the industry to massively bankroll his campaign. The president and his family have deepened their while in office, sparking conflict-of-interest concerns as Trump has unwound of the sector.
Organisers tout Trump’s pro-crypto stance
Hichem Zaghdoudi, one of the organisers of the statue, ABC 7News DC that it was “designed to ignite conversation about the future of government-issued currency and is a symbol of the intersection between modern politics and financial innovation.”
“This is a statement, this is to show everybody that without the president, we could never have had this mass adoption of Bitcoin, of cryptocurrencies, of all these big institutions buying Bitcoin,” Zaghdoudi DC News Now.
“It shows that’s the future and this is our thank you, our statement, to the president,” he added.
However, some could also argue that Bitcoin () has been in a bull market since at least late 2023, starting in the Biden administration, as hype surrounding the regulatory approval and the eventual launch of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds pushed the crypto higher as it became more easily available to institutional investors.
Statue made of foam, tied to Pump.fun memecoin
The organisers of the stunt, most of whom are anonymous, also created a on Pump.fun, where they created several livestreams aiming to boost the token.
One organizer said during a on Tuesday that the statue was made from “extremely hard foam” to make it light and manageable to handle.
Posts on the organisers’ X account show a machine carving the head of the statue and multiple people the statue into place.
Bringing the heat irl 👀
— Donald J. Trump Golden Statue (@djtgst)
The organiser said on the stream that the statue is 12 feet (3.6 meters) tall and he hoped Trump would “walk out there and see it,” seemingly unaware that the president is currently visiting the UK.
National Mall famed for statue protests
The golden Trump statue is at least the third statue to appear on the National Mall this year in reference to Trump, but seemingly the first in support of the president.
Related:
In June, an eight-foot (2.4-meter) tall statue dubbed “Dictator Approved” appeared on the strip, depicting a giant golden hand giving a thumbs-up and crushing the crown of the Statue of Liberty. It was in protest of Trump’s highly criticized military parade days earlier.
Later that same month, a gold television adorned with a bald eagle appeared, showing a video of Trump dancing with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein amid his administration’s controversial U-turn on releasing more of the so-called Epstein Files.
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