Eric Balchunas Takes a Swipe at President Donald Trump and His Family's Personal Stakes in Crypto

On the inaugural day of Token2049 Dubai, Bloomberg ETF analyst and journalist Eric Balchunas took a swipe at President Donald Trump and his family's personal stakes in crypto

On the inaugural day of Token2049 Dubai, a lively exchange unfolded as Bloomberg ETF analyst and journalist Eric Balchunas playfully took aim at President Donald Trump and his family’s personal stakes in crypto.

The scenario had the surprising question of whether there would be any buyers for “Trump and Melania ETFs”.

The pointed question to a Token2049 panel drew amusement from the audience.

“A Trump ETF, a Trump coin ETF, and a 2x Melania. Who here will buy that?” Balchunas asked, eliciting chuckles from the crowd.

But he pressed the irony, adding, “You’re going to say that the Trump coin ETF is not appropriate for investors, yet your boss has basically launched the coin for investors? How does that work?”

🔥🇦🇪 Exclusive from TOKEN2049: "Trump, Melania ETFs? Who here will buy that?" jokes Eric, stirring laughs on stage. But behind the humor, he hints at a wild new frontier of personality-driven ETFs, fueled by meme coins and the burning question: where will it end? #Token2049Dubai pic.twitter.com/YSjEuKWFj0

While the room absorbed the bold remark, Jan van Eck, the CEO of VanEck, offered a grounded response.

“The SEC may approve them, but that doesn’t mean that they’re going to be easily available. We’re not planning to launch a 3x leveraged bitcoin ETF or a -1x inverse product. I think that these products are risky, and I don’t think they’re suitable for most investors,” he explained, drawing from his firm’s own decision-making.

He further noted that neither VanEck nor Balchunas’s firm had launched leveraged or inverse ETFs, citing concerns over poor investor outcomes.

“It’s not really the government’s job to say this is good or bad. I do think it’s the role of these intermediaries, like the broker-dealers, to say, ‘Put those cautionary brakes on’. And I think the broker-dealers have a role in aggregating demand and saying, ‘Maybe this is an interesting product that we can offer.’ But I do think it’s up to the broker-dealers to put those products in place,” van Eck elaborated, highlighting the role of brokerages in filtering products and safeguarding retail traders.

Balchunas pushed the discussion further: “Let’s say the Trump ETF takes off for whatever reason. Do you then seriously consider futures on it? Where do you stop the futures launching?”

The question drew a direct response from Giovanni Vicioso, the Global Head of Cryptocurrency at CME Group, who rejected the idea entirely.

“When you consider meme coins in general, there is no underlying function. I wouldn’t see us launching something like that. I think it’s important to have an underlying asset or a clear underlying function for the products that we launch. We want to make sure that the products we launch are serving a specific purpose and have a clear use case,” Vicioso stated pointedly.

The exchange highlighted the awkward intersection of regulation, politics, and the growing appetite for meme-fueled investments. While the panel members displayed amusement and acknowledged the rising interest in such assets, their message was clear: investor safety, real utility, and solid structure still take precedence over internet hype.

Even with all the buzz around Trump or Melania-themed ETFs, becoming a major industry topic, it seems like leading industry voices assembled, are clear—they’re not betting on these becoming serious or sustainable investment products anytime soon.