Trump Team Launches Official Meme Coin Ahead of Inauguration
Eric Trump Calls It "The Hottest Digital Meme in the World"
Concerns Rise Over Potential Conflict of Interest
Cryptocurrency Industry Anticipates Pro-Crypto Policies
The team of Donald Trump, the President-elect of the United States who pledged to become a 'pro-cryptocurrency president,' has launched its own meme coin ahead of his inauguration.
On the 17th (local time), Trump announced on social media platforms such as Truth Social and X (formerly Twitter), "It's time to celebrate every victory we support," and urged people to "join the very special Trump community and earn '$TRUMP'." The homepage of the coin displayed the phrase "The only official Trump meme."
Although the Trump transition team did not make any separate comments, his second son Eric Trump described the coin as "the hottest digital meme in the world" in an online post the following day, and Trump’s X account also reposted (retweeted) this.
According to CoinMarketCap, as of 4:32 PM KST on the 19th, the coin was trading at $45.91, up 230% from 24 hours earlier. Its market capitalization soared to $9.18 billion (approximately 13.4 trillion KRW), ranking 19th among all cryptocurrencies. Earlier, the U.S. media outlet Fox Business reported that the Trump meme coin’s price had already surged by 18,000% from just a few cents at launch to $33.87.
Meme coins refer to speculative cryptocurrencies created based on parodies or jokes without intrinsic utility. According to the Trump meme coin’s homepage, 80% of the coin’s circulation is held by two subsidiaries of the Trump Organization, where Eric Trump serves as Executive Vice President: FightFightFight and CIC Digital.
Donald Trump, President-elect of the United States, announced the issuance of a meme coin in an X post.
Therefore, some point out a potential conflict of interest since a significant portion of the profits from the coin’s price increase would accrue to the Trump Organization. The U.S. daily The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) mentioned the possibility that foreign governments or companies seeking influence in the U.S. might buy the coin to curry favor with President-elect Trump. Some cryptocurrency exchanges, including Kraken, have already started supporting trading of the coin, and there are voices hopeful about attracting new investors to the cryptocurrency market. As the Trump meme coin was issued on the Solana blockchain network, the price of the cryptocurrency Solana also surged accordingly.
The cryptocurrency industry expects that President-elect Trump will implement favorable policies such as deregulation. The U.S. political media outlet Politico reported that cryptocurrency companies spent $10 million (approximately 1.46 billion KRW) on Trump’s inauguration.
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