Trump memecoin sends $1M to 10 U.S. firms, raising doubts about real support

Donald Trump’s Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin distributed a total of $1 million worth of TRUMP tokens to 10 U.S. companies under the roughly three-month America First Business Challenge program, although questions have been raised about whether it provided meaningful support. The program was first announced in April at an event President Trump held at the Mar-a-Lago resort, and about 616 companies applied, with 36 ultimately approved. Among them, the top vote-getter received $250,000 worth of TRUMP, while six companies each received $100,000 and three companies each received $50,000 worth of the token. BeInCrypto pointed out the use of a memecoin as corporate support funding was unusual, while participating companies had to hold TRUMP tokens to qualify for the grants. In effect, companies had to buy TRUMP first and were then rewarded in TRUMP, according to BeInCrypto. The outlet added TRUMP has no separate use case, meaning companies would ultimately need to sell the token to use the support as actual funds.