The recently popular Political Finance (PoliFi) tokens appear to be losing steam in the aftermath of the U.S. election, with major players like the Trump-themed MAGA and Kamala Harris-inspired KAMA plummeting in value. MAGA, the meme coin that popularized the PoliFi genre, fell nearly 49% in the last 24 hours and over 50% in the past week, while KAMA dropped a steep 75% in the same period.
Designed to reflect political sentiment, PoliFi tokens, in theory, should rally with positive developments related to their associated candidates. Earlier this year, Mechanism Capital’s Andrew Kang noted that the Trump-themed MAGA token, launched in February, could thrive by capitalizing on Trump’s media presence. However, Kang also cautioned that MAGA could face a “sell the news” downturn after the election, similar to how Dogecoin consolidated after its initial surge driven by Elon Musk.
Another challenge facing MAGA’s liquidity is its exclusion from major retail centralized exchanges (CEXs), such as Kraken, ByBit, and OKX, limiting its availability to less-trafficked decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and smaller exchanges like Gate.io, MEXC, and BingX. Kraken, however, lists the satirical Trump-themed token TREMP and BODEN.
The market shift may also reflect broader interest in bitcoin (BTC), which recently soared past its all-time high, fueling bullish projections for the leading cryptocurrency. Despite this, the meme coin sector as a whole posted a 12% gain over the past day, according to CoinGecko, suggesting PoliFi’s downturn may be isolated to election-linked tokens rather than a wholesale shift to BTC.
Beyond their speculative value, PoliFi tokens are also marketed as tickets to a political community, potentially giving them staying power beyond mere profit. Whether the PoliFi trend will endure or fade remains uncertain, but as the initial hype fades, the market seems to be recalibrating its enthusiasm for the intersection of politics and finance.
