William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
Abstract
The market for cryptocurrency (crypto) has exploded in size since the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, was created in 2009. As of September 4, 2024, the value of all existing cryptocurrency was $2.02 trillion. On November 14, 2024, this value reached a high of $3.2 trillion, apparently in response to the election of pro-crypto President Donald Trump. Despite the fact that cryptocurrencies have been at the forefront of many high profile scandals, consumers still flock to them. For example, celebrities including Hailey Welch (colloquially known as “Hawk Tuah girl”), Logan Paul, and Jason Derulo have been criticized for allegedly goading consumers into purchasing their own branded cryptocurrency tokens and rug-pulling them, leaving victims holding digital assets of significantly lower value than they were purchased for. Capitalizing on consumers’ appetite for crypto, President Donald Trump released his own $TRUMP “memecoin” just days before his inauguration in 2025. It was met with commercial success; within two days, $TRUMP had a trading volume of $36.15 billion and a market capitalization of $15 billion. His wife followed suit and launched her own memecoin, $MELANIA.
President Trump probably did not run afoul of the Constitution or the laws of the United States in creating his $TRUMP coin. After all, there is nothing in Article II that directly prohibits the President from launching their own digital assets like cryptocurrencies. The same cannot be said, however, for the individual states. Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution prohibits the states from coining money, declaring anything but “gold and silver” legal tender for repaying debts, and issuing bills of credit. This Note will explore the nature of cryptocurrencies, compare them with other blockchain digital assets, and analyze early Article I jurisprudence to determine whether the Constitution’s limitation on the states’ capacity to declare and issue currency extends to cryptocurrencies.
Repository Citation
Kevin Fontenot, Does Article I of the Constitution Prohibit the States from Creating Their Own Cryptocurrencies?, 34 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 831 (2026), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmborj/vol34/iss3/7Included in
Banking and Finance Law Commons, Constitutional Law Commons, State and Local Government Law Commons