Meme coins have always been regarded as a breath of fresh air in the hectic and, at times, overly dramatic crypto landscape, thanks to their humoristic and unconventional approach. This highly popular crypto subset has served numerous surprises over time. Elon Musk’s endorsement of Dogecoin and the sharp rise that followed offers the best example in this respect.
However, despite the astonishing ascent of meme coins, the last thing crypto enthusiasts (and naysayers) ever expected was to see the President-elect of the United States join the hype. Shocking as it may seem, that’s exactly what it’s come to after President Donald Trump decided to launch an eponymous meme token this January.
Although $TRUMP is one of the most recent additions to the meme coin family, it’s already making huge waves in the market, drawing attention from investors and bystanders. In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about the newcomer, from the debut and evolution of the Trump coin price to its impact on meme coins and the crypto space as a whole.
What is Trump coin?
The arrival of $TRUMP was announced on January 17 via a post on Donald Trump’s social media platform Truth. The post read that the official meme represented a celebration of Trump’s victory and invited everyone to join the Trump Community. The token debuted on the 18th, just two days before the Republican leader was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States.
The launch was facilitated by CIC Digital LLC and Fight Fight Fight LLC, two subsidiaries of the Trump Organization, that collectively own a substantial 80% of the token’s supply and, therefore, maintain control of its development and distribution.
In true meme coin fashion, $TRUMP features an image of the president with his fist raised in the air as its logo. The asset is marketed as a collectible digital token, with an official disclaimer on the token’s website clearly specifying that it’s not intended as an investment opportunity or security, and it doesn’t have any political affiliations.
In terms of structure and technical features, the novel asset resides on the Solana blockchain and has a limited supply of 1 billion. The first 200 million tokens are already available on the market, being issued within the first few days of launch, with plans to have the other 800 million released into circulation gradually over a three-year period.
Like all other meme coins, the Trump token doesn’t have any real-world applicability, serving not as a financial tool but as a cultural symbol that draws its value from public sentiment and Donald Trump’s fame. Some have compared the asset to a fan token, akin to those created by sports teams or celebrities.
Mirroring her husband’s initiative, First Lady Melania Trump released her own meme coin, $MELANIA, on the eve of Trump’s inauguration, with support from her own company, MKT World LLC. This naturally intensified the craze around the Trump coin and drew even more attention to the two assets.
Price evolution
Trump coin’s journey in the crypto space started with a bang, rising by more than 300%, from an initial $0.18 to $7.1, within minutes. The first day of trade saw the asset peak at a whopping $74.59, with a market cap of $15 billion and a total trading volume of $36.15 billion. As a result, the Trump coin became one of the most valuable cryptocurrencies in the market overnight.
However, after the wave of excitement started to subside, so did the coin’s value. Trump telling reporters he doesn’t know much about the meme coin except that it was successful caused the asset to slump further, as the public was waiting for a different reaction from the President. At press time, the Trump coin ranked 36 and was trading at $16.73, with a market cap of $3.35B.
$MELANIA followed a similar path. After the post-launch surge pushed the token to a record high of $13.73, the coin started to dip, falling to a trade price of $1.227665 at the time of writing.
Public reaction
Trump’s relationship with crypto has been tumultuous as the President’s views on crypto have changed over the years. Back in 2019, Trump stated he was not a big fan of crypto because they don’t represent real money and their value is highly volatile. His distrust of crypto was so strong that he even labeled digital currencies a scam at one point.
However, the President’s stance on crypto shifted dramatically last year when he started to gain interest in this innovative asset class and eventually became a champion for crypto during the election campaign.
Nevertheless, the launch of the $TRUMP token attracted mixed reactions. As expected, the majority of Trump’s fans backed the initiative, seeing it as another way to demonstrate their loyalty and support for the President-elect and his policies. Opportunistic traders and investors also welcomed the project, earning substantial gains in the short time since the asset has been trading.
On the other hand, industry insiders expressed their concerns about a potential negative impact on the crypto industry, which is already fraught with numerous challenges. Many were worried that the influx of celebrity-backed cryptocurrencies, like the Trump meme coin, could undermine the value of digital currencies and hamper their evolution. Others pointed out that the emergence of these meme coins could give rise to a conflict of interests and cast a bad light on the President’s image.
The Trump effect
Despite the controversies, Trump’s newly launched token brought back attention to meme coins, whose popularity had been waning prior to the event, drawing in a new wave of traders and investors to the crypto space.
The enthusiasm surrounding the launch of the TRUMP and MELANIA cryptocurrencies also impacted other assets in the market. All-time leader Bitcoin reached a new high of $109,114 on inauguration day but later slumped under the 100K threshold, currently trading at $96,156. [1]
Now, everyone is waiting for Trump to make good on his promise to turn the US into the crypto capital of the planet. Therefore, the fate of $TRUMP and the rest of the crypto assets remains as uncertain as ever. So, caution is highly recommended for those looking to take advantage of this new token or any other digital currency.
