Donald Trump, the president-elect of the United States, has officially launched the meme coin 'TRUMP' just three days before his inauguration, causing a surge in its value. Meme coins are coins without any functionality.
The Trump meme coin recorded a market capitalization of $7 billion just one day after its launch. The Solana network, where the Trump meme coin is issued, also benefited, with prices rising by more than 10%.
According to CoinMarketCap on the 19th, the Trump meme coin 'TRUMP' surged over 10,000% just one day after its launch. Its market capitalization ranking skyrocketed to around 30th, surpassing well-known coins like Aptos and Ethereum Classic.
According to the coin's description, the initial supply will be limited to 200 million units, with plans to expand the total supply to 1 billion units over the next three years. Virtual assets typically calculate market capitalization based on current circulation. Calculating based on the final supply of 1 billion units, the total market capitalization reaches $35 billion.
The Trump meme coin was suddenly launched on the 17th (local time). Donald Trump posted on his social media account Truth Social, stating, "My new official Trump meme coin has been released."
Initially, among virtual asset investors, there were speculations that Trump's account had been hacked, given that it was just three days before the presidential inauguration scheduled for the 20th.
However, as time passed without any additional announcements, the price of Trump Coin continued to rise.
Starting at $0.41 on the Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX) Moonshot, the Trump meme coin was trading around $36 as of 1:50 p.m.
As the Trump coin gained popularity, global virtual asset exchanges such as Binance and Bybit swiftly listed the meme coin.
As the Trump meme coin became popular, Solana also experienced a price surge of about 10%. The Trump coin was issued through the Solana network, making it naturally tradable on Solana DEX.
The Solana DEX has Solana as its base currency. To purchase Trump coins, one must buy Solana. Coins belonging to the Solana ecosystem, such as Jupiter (JUP) and Raydium (RAT), also saw price increases.
As the Trump meme coin absorbed all market liquidity, other meme coins plummeted. Dogecoin fell by about 6%, while Shiba Inu and Pepe coins dropped by approximately 7% and 8%, respectively.