Donald Trump Launches TRUMP Meme Coin on Solana. A New Crypto Era?

Friday night surprises are rare, but this one takes the cake. Donald Trump, just days away from returning to the White House, shocked the crypto world by announcing the launch of an official meme coin called TRUMP on the Solana blockchain. His official X (formerly Twitter) and Truth Social accounts broke the news, sending the internet into a frenzy of speculation and excitement.

The idea seemed too wild to be true, but over an hour passed, and the posts remained live. Early concerns flagged by blockchain analysts began to dissolve, and traders flocked to buy the coin. By the time the dust settled, TRUMP had already hit $7.31, with trading volumes in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

"My NEW Official Trump Meme is HERE! It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING! Join my very special Trump Community. GET YOUR $TRUMP NOW,"

Trump's official X account posted.

The announcement triggered an avalanche of reactions. Supporters celebrated, skeptics pointed to celebrity crypto scams, and conspiracy theories about hacked accounts spread like wildfire. Yet, the token's price showed no signs of the usual "pump and dump" behavior, and the social media posts stayed up, signaling this might be legitimate after all.

Red Flags and Blockchain Sleuthing

Blockchain investigators initially flagged some unusual activity. Reports suggested the project received millions in funding from Binance and Gate, two exchanges that don’t serve U.S. customers. However, further digging revealed fewer concerns, especially as time passed without any major mishaps.

The coin’s official website bore a striking resemblance to Trump’s previous NFT collection pages. It was also developed by CIC Digital, the same licensed entity responsible for Trump’s NFTs. Blockchain engineer cygaar tweeted:

"Either this is the greatest cyber heist of all time, or this is legitimate. The website is almost identical to Trump’s earlier NFT platform."

Mind-Boggling Numbers

• The coin’s market cap reached $7.1 billion, potentially placing it among the top 30 cryptocurrencies.
• Out of 1 billion tokens, 80% are locked and will gradually unlock over three years.
• The actual circulating market cap stands closer to $1.5 billion with $680 million in trading volume so far.

Trump’s history with crypto is well-documented. Since 2022, he’s launched successful NFT collections and backed the decentralized finance platform World Liberty Financial. Rumors suggest that upon reentering office, Trump plans to issue an executive order reshaping U.S. crypto policy.

Is this a masterstroke of marketing, a genuine crypto innovation, or something in between? Whatever it is, the world will be watching.