A golden statue of Donald Trump clutching a Bitcoin was placed outside the US Capitol by livestreamers from Pump.fun as a memecoin stunt.
A colossal gilded statue of President Donald Trump clutching a Bitcoin was erected outside the US Capitol on Wednesday. The statue was placed by memecoiners as a Pump.fun livestream stunt, in tribute to the crypto-supporting president.
The statue was situated directly across from Union Square in Washington, DC, on the National Mall that leads to Capitol Hill. The location is also approximately a mile from the White House.
It was stated on a website for the stunt that 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 a 25-basis-point interest rate reduction by the Federal Reserve, which was done for the first time this year. This is typically viewed as a bullish signal for risky assets like crypto, as it lowers the cost of borrowing money.
Trump’s support for crypto during his presidential campaign has been widely bankrolled by the industry. The financial interests of the president and his family have been deepened since taking office, which has ignited conflict-of-interest concerns as regulatory oversight is unwound by Trump.
Organisers Tout Pro-Crypto Stance by President
A statement was provided to ABC 7News DC by Hichem Zaghdoudi, one of the statue’s organizers, 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.”
It was stated to DC News Now by Zaghdoudi that “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.”
The following was added by him: “It shows that’s the future and this is our thank you, our statement, to the president.”
Conversely, it could be argued that Bitcoin (BTC $117,073) has been in a bull run since late 2023, which started during the Biden administration. Enthusiasm surrounding the regulatory approval and subsequent launch of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds drove the crypto’s price higher as it was made more accessible to institutional investors.
Statue Made of Foam, Tied to Pump.fun Memecoin
A memecoin was also developed on Pump.fun by the organizers of the stunt, most of whom are anonymous. Several livestreams were created to promote the token.
It was stated by one organizer during a livestream on Tuesday that the statue was made from “extremely hard foam” to ensure it was light and easily manageable.
It is shown in posts on the organizers’ X account that the statue’s head was carved by a machine and the monument was then carried into place by multiple people.
It was stated by the organizer on the stream that the statue is 12 feet (3.6 meters) tall, and he hoped Trump would “walk out there and see it,” apparently unaware that the president is currently visiting the UK.
National Mall Famed for Statue Protests
The golden Trump statue marks at least the third monument to have been placed on the National Mall this year that references Trump, but it is seemingly the first to be in support of the president.
In June, an eight-foot (2.4-meter) statue was installed on the strip. Dubbed “Dictator Approved,” it depicted a giant golden hand crushing the crown of the Statue of Liberty and was a protest against Trump’s highly criticized military parade days earlier.
Later that same month, a gold television adorned with a bald eagle was spotted. It displayed a video of Trump dancing with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, with the appearance coming amid his administration’s controversial U-turn on releasing more of the so-called Epstein Files.
