Just a few days before Donald Trumps Inauguration, he released his own cryptocurrency, the $TRUMP memecoin. Trump announced this over X (formerly known as Twitter) just three days before the inauguration, where there are now 200 million coins, and they plan to have 1 billion available in the future. The site responsible for the coin calls Trump the “crypto president” and portrays him with his fist in the air alongside the line “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT,” which Trump reportedly shouted after the assassination attempt in July 2024 in Pennsylvania.
When the public began trading on Friday, January 17th, the market valued each coin at about 18 cents.. With 200 million coins, that gave the whole value of the coins to be about $36 million. Just a day later, the coin had a total valuation of more than $31 billion, with a market cap of more than $6 million. While this helped many investors in the coin make a pretty penny, it certainly helped Donald Trump and his companies. According to Ben Berkowitz and Brady Dale, writers at Axios.com, the start of the coin “caught the entire industry off-guard, and speaks to both [Trump’s] personal influence and the ascendancy of cryptocurrency in his administration.”
They also reported that the memecoin “appeared to have made more than $50 billion on paper for [Trump] and his companies.” Melania Trump, First Lady and wife to Donald Trump, also started her own cryptocurrency as well. On January 19th, the day before the inauguration, Melania released the $MELANIA memecoin, which had a market value of about $1.7 billion.
Is Trump Allowed to Have His Own Memecoin?
While there are no set rules of who can and cannot own their own cryptocurrency, the launch of Donald and Melania Trumps memecoins have raised some eyebrows. Justin d’Anethan, an independent cryptocurrency analyst from Hong Kong, said “While it’s tempting to dismiss this as just another Trump spectacle, the launch of the official Trump token opens up a Pandora’s box of ethical and regulatory questions”, as well as “Should public figures, especially those with such political clout, wield this kind of sway in speculative markets? That’s a question regulators are unlikely to ignore.”
Even Anthony Scaramucci, Trumps former lead of White House communications said “Now anyone in world can essentially deposit money into bank account of President of USA with a couple clicks. Every favour — geopolitical, corporate or personal — is now on sale, right out in the open.” What do you think of Trump’s new cryptocurrency? Let us know in the comments.
Featured Image Credit: Alesia Kozik, Pexels; Thank You!
