Hedge fund manager James Koutoulas remembers when U.S. President Donald J. Trump first awakened to crypto — and it had nothing to do with making a mint.

“Trump got into cryptocurrency back in 2022,” he tells Institutional Investor. “But he really had no idea what it was at first.”

Koutoulas, who runs Miami-based Typhon Capital Management, witnessed it. While attending a $10,000-a-head Christmas fundraiser thrown by Trump in Naples, Florida, he says Trump overheard him talking with some other guests about a recently launched meme coin called “Let’s Go Brandon,” referring to the popular gibe against then-President Joe Biden.

Still stinging from his presidential loss in 2020, Trump perked up at the idea of a satirical…