Updated 01/20 below. This article was originally published on January 19
Crypto markets were rocked by the launch of an “official” Donald Trump memecoin over the weekend, with traders bracing for even more chaos next week.
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The price of the “official” Trump memecoin has surged since its launch Friday evening, entering the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization and reaching a staggering $14 billion.
Now, as leaks reveal Trump is preparing a wave of crypto-focused executive orders, Trump’s wife Melania launched her own rival cryptocurrency, driving up the price of Trump’s coin.
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President-elect Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump have each launched cryptocurrencies this year. … (+)
“The official Melania meme is live,” the new first lady of the United States posted on X, along with a link to a website selling the cryptocurrency. “You can buy $melania now.”
The price of Melania’s coin soared as traders rushed to buy it, pushing it above $5 and giving it a fully diluted market cap of more than $5 billion.
Like Trump’s coin, Melania’s memecoin, a type of cryptocurrency similar to bitcoin that derives its value from the community’s level of interest and engagement, was launched on the Solana blockchain.
Updated 1/20: The crypto market is now bracing for more cryptocurrency bombs as Donald Trump’s inauguration begins in Washington DC.
“Wait and see what they do tomorrow,” says Trump’s son Eric. job to X Sunday, adding a job This is what Donald Trump shared: “We are just getting started!”
Following the launch of Trump’s memecoin, World Liberty Financial, the decentralized finance (DeFi) project launched with the support of Trump and his family last year, saw a surge in sales of its governance token.
“I truly believe that World Liberty Financial will revolutionize DeFi/CeFi (centralized finance) and will be the future of finance,” added Eric Trump.
Meanwhile, the price of Trump’s memecoin was boosted by trading app Robinhood announcing it would list the cryptocurrency on its platform.
Adding to the already sky-high expectations for bitcoin and crypto on Monday, MicroStrategy Chief Executive Michael Saylor, who has turned his struggling software company into a bitcoin buying vehicle since 2020, job: “Things will be different tomorrow.”
Saylor’s message fueled expectations that Trump could announce a U.S. bitcoin reserve, an idea Trump first floated at a bitcoin conference last year, during which he promised to create a national stockpile of bitcoins similar to the country’s gold and oil reserves.
“It’s beyond crazy,” posted analysts from The Kobeissi Letter on 10 minutes. Within minutes of the launch of Melania Trump’s token, we saw massive sell orders in $trump.”
“Looks like crypto is becoming a family business,” posted X influencer Mario Nawfal.
After the launch of Melania’s coin, Trump’s memecoin crashed by about 40%, plunging as traders rushed to buy the new coin, according to on-chain data.
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Donald Trump’s ‘official’ coin crashed after his wife Melania launched her own cryptocurrency … (+)
Early buyers of the Trump coin saw a triple-digit increase since Friday evening, with some traders missing out because they believed Trump’s social media had been hacked.
The Trump family’s memecoin blitz comes after David Sacks, named crypto and artificial intelligence czar by Trump, declared a new era of crypto innovation in the United States.
“The reign of terror against crypto is over and the beginning of innovation in America for crypto has just begun,” Sacks said, speaking Friday at the so-called crypto ball event, intended to drum up support to Trump within the crypto community and demonstrate its value to the new administration.
