The Solana logo on a phone screen and representation of cryptocurrencies are seen in this photo taken in Krakow, Poland on August 21, 2021.
Jakub Porzycki | NurPhoto | Getty Images
at Solana GROUND the token soared after the launch of a coin tied to President-elect Donald Trump on the popular blockchain network.
SOL price rose more than 15% to $254.71 on Saturday, according to Coin Metrics. Previously, it had jumped almost 23%. Etherone of its main competitors, fell 7%.
The moves began Friday evening after the launch of a new coin announced on Trump’s social media accounts and issued on the Solana blockchain. “Official Trump” (TRUMP) has since attracted more than $5 billion to become the largest coin in the Solana network, according to CoinGecko.
The move came ahead of Trump’s inauguration on Monday, which is widely expected to usher in a new era of innovation and productivity in the crypto industry, and the day crypto villain Gary Gensler ended his tenure as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Solana is the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins. It was created in 2020 as a faster, cheaper alternative to Ethereum and now hosts some of the most popular meme coins like dogwifhat and Pudgy Penguins, as well as decentralized finance (DeFi) and gaming projects.
The token has become so popular that asset managers are looking to issue exchange-traded funds that track its price. The decision deadline for potential ETFs from Bitwise, VanEck, 21Shares and Canary is approaching January 25. ProShares also filed four different SOL-based ETFs on Friday evening. If approved this year, SOL ETFs could attract only a fraction of the assets that were invested in bitcoin ETFs during their first year of trading, according to JPMorgan.
SOL has gained 85% in 2024. It is now down about 4% from its all-time high of $264.56, from November 22.
Trump’s latest crypto project
The “official Trump” coin was announced on the president-elect’s X and Truth Social accounts Friday evening, the same night as the Crypto Ball, a celebration of his return to the White House hosted by leaders in the cryptography in Washington DC.
It began trading around 10:40 p.m. ET on Friday at a price of $4.29 and has since soared 588% to $29.53, according to CoinGecko data.
The meme coin is the latest cryptocurrency project to come out of the Trump team – which also launched two NFT collections – Trump Digital Trading Cards on the Polygon blockchain and Trump Bitcoin Digital Trading Cards on the Bitcoin network – as well as the DeFi platform WorldLiberty. Financial on the Ethereum network.
Although meme coins in general are purely speculative and often lack intrinsic value, their role in internet culture reflects the origins, culture, and permissionless nature of the crypto industry. The original meme piece, dogecoinis the seventh largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
