Author: Weilin, PANews
On an originally peaceful Saturday morning, a post from Trump gave the cryptocurrency market an unprecedented shock. Starting at 10 a.m. on January 18, Trump released a meme coin called TRUMP through the social platforms Truth Social and X platform, which triggered a huge response in the cryptocurrency market. The price of this official meme coin called TRUMP has been soaring. According to GMGN data, the market value once exceeded 30 billion U.S. dollars that night. It continued to rise the next day, and the full circulation market value surpassed Dogecoin, with the price reaching 82 U.S. dollars, corresponding to a total market value of 82 billion U.S. dollars.
This meme coin continues to dominate the crypto market. According to Forbes rankings, if the price of TRUMP tokens rises to $270, Trump will become the world's richest man. At the same time, the issuance method of TRUMP coins and the capital operation behind it have also attracted great attention from regulatory organizations, crypto professionals and investors.
This article will analyze the impact of this incident on various potential stakeholders and the capital market from multiple perspectives, including whales, new users, the Solana ecosystem, and Trump himself.
Market value quickly passes 10 billion and aims at 100 billion, whales benefit, new users enter the market
When Trump issued the currency, the crypto ball was held. David Sacks, the cryptocurrency czar of the Trump administration, said, "The reign of terror against cryptocurrencies is over, and the beginning of crypto innovation in the United States has just begun."
A day ago, the release of TRUMP coin was mistakenly believed to be a hacker attack on Trump's social platform. However, as time went on, its market performance completely changed this initial misunderstanding.
One hour after the token was issued, GMGN market data showed that TRUMP's market value exceeded 3 billion US dollars, the price of the token was 3.25 US dollars, and the top 10 holders held about 89.61% of the tokens, of which the address with the largest position held 80% of the tokens. Subsequently, as time went on, the market value of TRUMP tokens soared, achieving a "fast pass" market value of 10 billion US dollars. As of 5 pm on January 19, the FDV of Trump's official meme coin had exceeded Dogecoin (DOGE), breaking through 59 billion US dollars, and DOGE FDV reported 55.89 billion US dollars. After going online on multiple exchanges, many people on Twitter even believed that TRUMP's next goal was 100 billion US dollars.
Due to its popularity, not only were on-chain transactions stuck, but Binance also temporarily suspended SOL withdrawals due to the hot wallet being emptied. The SOL withdrawal channels between the Solana network and BNB Chain were temporarily closed.
It is worth noting that according to the official website GetTrumpMemes.com, the initial purchase of TRUMP needs to be made through Moonshot, which supports traditional payment methods such as Apple Pay, Visa, Mastercard, Venmo, and cryptocurrency payment methods such as USDC and SOL. The convenience of this payment method has lowered the entry threshold for ordinary investors and further promoted the popularity of TRUMP coins.
As the token rises, Trump Token investors have reaped huge returns from the rapid price increase. According to on-chain analyst Ember, whale @XXAntiWar has made a profit of $10.19 million on $TRUMP. The 10th largest holding address used 61,205 SOL ($14.18M) to buy 1.271 million $TRUMP at $11.15 on the first day, and none of them have been sold yet. The floating profit has reached $21.41 million (+151%). There are also many active investors on the chain who have reaped huge returns. " Who has made millions of dollars in profits from TRUMP? The winning KOL and the frustrated ETH Maxi ".
TRUMP is not a MEME coin released on Punp.fun, but it has done advance coordination with Moonshot and Jupiter and was certified and launched at the first time. The hot trading of TRUMP has also led to the rapid rise of the related Solana ecosystem, decentralized trading platforms (DEX) such as Jupiter, Raydium, and Meteora. Moonshot has become the top financial application on the US Apple App Store because of the TRUMP token, indicating that they have attracted more than 400,000 new users in 24 hours. In addition, on-chain tools such as OKX Web3 and GMGN have also become beneficiaries of this overwhelming traffic.
On January 19, the price of SOL broke through $290, setting a record high, and the trading volume and activity of Solana ecosystem-related platforms rose sharply. According to @adam_tehc's data panel, on the day when TRUMP became popular, the on-chain MEME trading tool GMGN had a trading volume of about $153 million on the Solana chain on January 18, and captured $1.52 million in fees, both of which set a record high. As of the morning of January 19, GMGN has accumulated more than $34.6 million in fees. The hot market of TRUMP coins has further exacerbated the rise of the Solana ecosystem, and many users have flocked to the Solana chain for trading and investment.
At the same time, some crypto users expressed their views on the DEX trading experience: the on-chain era has just begun, and CEX will gradually rely on the on-chain community to maintain its survival and development. This transformation is expected to be completed in the current bull market and may accelerate during President Trump's term. As CEX's market advantage gradually shrinks, the importance of on-chain activities becomes more prominent. The real market winners will no longer be those players who rely on traditional resources, but those who can stand out through on-chain data analysis and strategies. This disruptive force will arouse huge changes in various fields and promote changes in the market landscape.
In fact, faced with such popularity, CEX also tried to catch up. On January 19, OKX, Coinbase, and Binance all launched TRUMP and pushed the price of TRUMP to US$80.
Trump's net worth rises, inauguration attracts more attention
Affected by the TRUMP craze, according to NFT Floor data, as of the afternoon of January 19, the floor price of Trump's NFT series Trump Digital Trading Cards rose 346% in 7 days, and the 7-day trading volume was US$2.81 million, an increase of 38,218%.
According to the official website of the TRUMP token, Trump Organization affiliates CIC Digital LLC and Fight Fight Fight LLC jointly hold 80% of the tokens in circulation, or 800 million TRUMPs. The circulation is expected to increase to 1 billion in the next three years. This means that as the price of the token rises, the owner will see significant gains. CIC Digital LLC has begun selling a range of other kinds of merchandise, such as Trump-branded sneakers, perfumes, and digital trading cards.
The website does not mention who will be the beneficiaries of these profits. They cannot sell all their tokens at once due to the three-year unlocking schedule.
Arkham Intelligence on X noted: Assuming that CIC Digital LLC and Fight Fight LLC (which together own 80% of the TRUMP supply) actually belong to him, Donald Trump's net worth increased by $22 billion overnight. Forbes estimates the net worth of the president-elect in November 2024 to be $5.6 billion. If this is accurate, then increasing the holding of memecoin would increase the asset 5 times.
It is worth mentioning that Trump's son Eric Trump expressed support for TRUMP coin on social platforms. "I am very proud of our continued achievements in the crypto field. $Trump is currently the hottest digital meme on the planet, and I sincerely believe that WorldLibertyFi will revolutionize DeFi/Cefi and become the future of finance. We are just getting started!"
Behind this event, the issuance of TRUMP coin is not a simple cryptocurrency project, but a re-monetization of Trump's personal brand. Trump has always been known for his ability to link his personal brand with various business projects, from Trump University to Trump Hotel to digital trading cards (NFT). The launch of TRUMP coin actually continues this operating model of the Trump brand. The difference is that this time the medium of cryptocurrency is used, which makes this event unusually attractive to capital.
Crypto market sentiment is high, but there is also uncertainty about how the landscape will evolve
One day after the coin was issued, the incident has already sparked widespread ethical controversy. Crypto journalist Coffeezilla criticized Trump's release of the TRUMP coin, citing several key points.
- Launching Trump's memecoin two days before becoming president is a terrible move
- New SEC/DOJ Policy Guarantees No Prosecution
- 80% of tokens are allocated to insiders during the presidency
- Most of the people who lose money will be MAGA supporters who are not crypto native
- It should have been a crime, but now it seems like a crime is legal?
Nick Tomaino, founder of 1confirmation, interpreted Trump's launch of TRUMP: The change in atmosphere from the Biden anti-crypto era to the Trump era is great. Trump owns 80% of the TRUMP coin share and launched it a few hours before the inauguration, which is predatory and many people may be hurt by it. Trump should airdrop it to the people instead of using this to enrich himself or his team. At present, it looks like an FTX token.
In addition, the way TRUMP coins are issued raises questions about whether they involve conflicts of interest. Currently, Trump is associated with DeFi projects such as World Liberty Financial, golf clubs and resorts, hotels and real estate, listed media companies, sports shoes that can collect copyright fees, NFTs, etc., all of which bring him the risk of violating the principle of conflict of interest.
Alliance DAO founder Qiao WANG criticized that it is cool for the president to launch a meme coin to be fair and he fully supports it; but launching a currency that provides 80% of its supply to insiders completely changes its nature, which is the textbook definition of a scam.
Trump has theoretically quickly accumulated huge wealth through the issuance of TRUMP coins, which has also attracted the attention of regulators. According to Bloomberg, many institutions believe that Trump's issuance of the Meme coin TRUMP is unethical. Danielle Brian, executive director of the nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight, said that memecoins are usually not related to any underlying business, so they are highly speculative for investors and can bring huge profits to founders, which further breaks the boundaries. Other groups that have raised concerns include the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Arthur Hayes, a veteran in the crypto industry, commented: This is the launch of the political memecoin market. Any politician who is not afraid of public opinion will launch his own memecoin. These token economics are fugazi, but this "shit" will develop towards $100 billion.
However, venture capitalist Chris Burniske struck a positive tone, saying he was uneasy about the token distribution but saw great potential for future innovation, similar to the impact of “The DAO movement” on the ICO craze in 2016.
Of course, TRUMP has successfully brought fresh blood and new users to the crypto market. In general, the rapid appreciation of the TRUMP coin and the operation behind it not only made Trump's personal wealth grow rapidly, but also focused the attention of the crypto market on this new meme coin that interweaves politics and crypto. As the market continues to develop, the TRUMP coin incident may also become an important symbol of the evolution of the crypto industry landscape, reminding us that while pursuing quick returns, we also need to face market risks and ethical considerations prudently. How will the future of the crypto industry develop? We can foresee that the balance between innovation and regulation will be a core issue worthy of attention in the next few years.
