U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who pledged to “become a pro-virtual currency president,” has launched his own meme coin ahead of his inauguration.
On the 17th local time, Trump said on social media accounts such as Truth Social and X, “It’s time to celebrate the ‘victory’ of everything we support,” adding, “Participate in a very special Trump community and win $TRUMP.”
Trump did not comment further afterwards, but his second son Eric said in an online post the next day that the coin was “the hottest digital meme in the world” and Trump’s X account also retweeted it.
On the first screen of the coin’s homepage, the phrase “the only official Trump meme” is displayed.
Trump’s transition team has not expressed a separate position on this.
According to CoinMarketCap, the price of this coin is trading at $45.91 as of 4:32 p.m. Korean time on the 19th, up 230% from 24 hours ago.
It has a market cap of $9.18 billion, rising to 19th place among all cryptocurrencies.
Earlier, U.S. media Fox Business said the rise was already 18,000% until the price of the Trump meme coin, which was only a few cents at the time of its launch, rose to $33.87.
Meme coins refer to virtual currencies of a speculative nature that are created based on parodies or jokes without intrinsic utility.
According to Trump meme coin’s website, 80% of the coin’s circulation is held by two affiliates (Fight Fight and CIC Digital) of the Trump Organization, where second son Eric serves as the senior vice president.
Critics point out that profits from rising coin prices are largely attributed to the Trump Group, which could lead to conflicts of interest.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) cited the possibility that foreign governments or companies that want to influence the U.S. would buy the coin to win Trump’s favor.
Kraken and some other cryptocurrency exchanges have already backed the coin transaction, and some are counting on the potential for new investors to flow into the cryptocurrency.
The price of the virtual currency Solana has also soared as Trump meme coins have been issued based on the Solana blockchain network.
When Trump’s SNS post was posted, hundreds of people from the virtual currency industry gathered in the U.S. to celebrate Trump’s inauguration.
Many of the participants reportedly did not know about the coin issuance and did not believe it, citing the possibility that Trump’s SNS account might have been hacked.
Until now, the virtual currency industry has expected President-elect Trump to implement policies in favor of virtual currency, including deregulation.
According to Politico, a U.S. political media outlet, cryptocurrency companies spent $10 million on Trump’s inauguration.
With U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler, who led the regulation, stepping down and cryptocurrency-friendly figures participating in the next cabinet, observers say Trump is considering an executive order to designate virtual currency as a “national priority” or establish a virtual currency advisory committee.
JULIE KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
