A new meme coin launched by President-elect Donald Trump on Friday has a market capitalisation of about $9 billion—after hitting a peak of over $15 billion early Sunday—marking Trump’s latest venture into cryptocurrency and merchandise sales in the lead-up to his inauguration.
Key Facts
- Trump announced the launch of his meme coin, $TRUMP, in a Truth Social post late Friday, saying the cryptocurrency is celebrating “WINNING” the presidential election and his upcoming inauguration.
- Shortly after launching, the price of $TRUMP rapidly rose by more than 300% by Saturday morning, and it kept rallying Saturday night and early Sunday morning—before paring back some of its gains later Sunday.
- The digital asset hovered at just over $46 as of 5:25 p.m. EST Sunday, with a market cap of $9.36 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.
- The asset—hosted on the Solana blockchain—briefly surpassed $75 early Sunday morning, bringing the total market cap of all tokens in circulation to a peak of $15 billion.
- The meme coin’s developers have limited the supply of $TRUMP to 200 million coins at launch before expanding the overall supply to 1 billion over the next three years, according to the coin’s website.
- The remaining 80% of tokens that have yet to be publicly released are owned by the Trump Organization affiliate CIC Digital LLC and Fight Fight Fight LLC, a company formed in Delaware on Jan. 7, according to state filings, and both companies will receive an undisclosed amount of revenue derived from trading activity.
- The token’s website includes a disclaimer noting $TRUMP is “not intended to be, or the subject of” an investment opportunity nor a security of any type, and is “not political and has nothing to do with” any political campaign, political office or government agency.
Big Number
$36.15 billion. That’s the trading volume of $TRUMP in the 24 hours ending Sunday at 5:25 p.m.
Key Background
Trump, whose campaign was backed by several billionaires with ties to the cryptocurrency industry, has claimed he wanted the U.S. to become the “crypto capital of the planet.” His election victory sent bitcoin to several new record highs, eclipsing $100,000 within a month of Election Day. Roughly $1.8 trillion was added to the global crypto market’s aggregate market value in 2024, including $1 trillion since Election Day, according to CoinGecko.
What Crypto Policies Has Trump Proposed?
Trump has said he would use his executive powers to reduce regulatory burdens facing crypto firms, including the formation of a new crypto advisory council. The president-elect has reportedly planned to unveil an executive order declaring cryptocurrency a policy priority while advising government agencies to work with the industry. That order would also establish a bitcoin reserve, allowing the federal government to buy and sell the crypto. News of Trump’s plans for the crypto industry sent the price of bitcoin over $105,000 on Friday, the coin’s highest price in nearly a month.
Tangent
Trump’s meme coin is his latest merchandise push in recent years, adding to a line of perfumes and colognes and “Trump Watches” celebrating his election win. He launched a series of “Trump Watches” valued up to $100,000 in September, following the debut of $100 silver coins and 1,000 pairs of limited edition sneakers, $60 Trump-branded bibles and NFT cards. Most of the revenue Trump has received from his merchandise came from his NFTs, which reportedly earned him about $7.2 million in licensing fees. Trump’s latest line of signed and unsigned guitars sold out at $11,500 and $1,500 each, respectively, generating a combined $4.6 million in sales.
This story was originally published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
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