On Friday night, President-elect Donald Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social. “My NEW Official Trump Meme is HERE!” read the post, with an accompanying link and a picture of the incoming president, fist raised with “Fight Fight Fight’ superimposed on the image.
While crypto watchers speculated online whether Trump had been hacked, an accompanying post on Bitcoin as a "scam," Trump embraced the disruptive sector during his campaign for a second term, appearing at blockchain industry events and naming the venture capitalist David Sacks as his "crypto and AI czar" after winning the election. He has promised a more pro-crypto stance after regulatory crackdowns by the Biden administration, including by appointing a more sympathetic Securities and Exchange Commission Chair, and helping to pass legislation legislation to help the industry grow.
Trump has also embarked on crypto projects of his own, including a series of NFT projects and a lending protocol called World Liberty Financial. Still, until Friday, he has avoided launching his own branded cryptocurrency—an approach favored by many internet celebrities, such as the TikTok star Haliey "Hawk Tuah girl" Welch, whose ill-fated memecoin caused her to retreat from the public eye in December. A previous Trump memecoin launched last summer with alleged involvement from his son, Barron Trump, although it was never officially associated with the president's family and plummeted in value.
With Trump's official memecoin still less than 24 hours old, online crypto communities are still scrambling to understand its surprise creation, including the figures behind the launch and how the distribution—or tokenomics—will function. Some, including digital sleuth Coffeezilla, have pointed out that ownership seems to be concentrated to a small group of insiders. The website linked to the announcement shows that 80% of the supply is distributed to holders associated with the project and a lockup of 2 years, meaning the period they cannot sell tokens. The full supply will be released over three years.
Despite its opaque structure, the memecoin's association with the incoming president caused it to erupt, crossing a fully diluted value of $30 billion—meaning the full value of the cryptocurrency once all its tokens are circulating. And though the legal uncertainty around memecoins have caused more cautious financial firms to stay away, the apparent endorsement by Trump marks a new era for blockchain experimentation—and potential peril.
Solana, the native cryptocurrency of the blockchain hosting the memecoin, also rose over 20%.
