In a brazen move, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has created his own cryptocurrency, known as $TRUMP, and it has been so popular that its market capitalization skyrocketed to several billion dollars on Saturday. The coin was announced on Trump’s official social media platforms, Truth Social and X. It is one of those meme coins, intended to ride viral internet trends and personalities.
Most meme coins, like $TRUMP, have little or no real economic value or practical transactional usage. Instead, they rely on hype and social media groups for attention. Officially, the coin’s website claims, “This Trump Meme celebrates a leader who doesn’t back down, no matter the odds,” referring to the president-elect’s determination and, for instance, a reference to his attempt to assassinate him in July 2024.
Everything you should know about Donald Trump cryptocurrency $TRUMP
Immediately after its launch, the legitimacy of the $TRUMP coin was questioned by many in the crypto community, as they believed that it was not directly associated with Donald Trump and maybe a scam. The doubts were cleared when Trump himself posted the news through his social media accounts, coupled with the involvement of CIC Digital LLC, a company Trump has worked with in the past to sell NFTs. By mid-morning on Saturday, $TRUMP had already hit a market cap nearing $6 billion.
It remains unknown how much of the initial coin launch went into Trump’s pocket because neither he nor the company managing the launch, Fight Fight Fight LLC, made earnings reports. According to the official site, 200 million $TRUMP coins were sold, with further batches of 800 million announced for release in the next three years, which may raise the coin’s total market value to a whopping $24 billion.
Though he was an initial skeptic of cryptocurrency, the 2024 presidential campaign saw him change to a proponent of crypto and advocate for more relaxed regulations that would encourage industry growth.
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