Trump launched his own meme coin, and its value skyrocketed

US President-elect Donald Trump launched his own cryptocurrency, dubbed TRUMP, sparking frenzied buying that sent the currency’s market value on Saturday soaring to several billion dollars.

In a message posted on the Truth Social and

Meme currencies have no economic or transactional value, and are often viewed as a means of speculative trading.

“This is a Trump meme that celebrates the leader who does not back down, no matter the odds,” the coin’s official website says, referring to the attempted assassination of the Republican candidate in July 2024.

In the hours following the overnight launch, the cryptocurrency community raised questions about the legitimacy of Trump Coin, and its actual connection to the president-elect, with some fearing fraud.

But the fact that the ads appeared on Trump’s official social media channels appeared to reassure the market, as did the fact that Trump has used one of the companies behind the project, CIC Digital LLC, in the past to sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs). ).

As of mid-morning Saturday, TRUMP’s market cap was nearly $6 billion.

Neither Trump nor the company running the launch, Fight Fight Fight LLC, provided details on how much he made from the first batch of meme coins released.

The coin’s official website said 200 million coins had been issued, with Fight Fight Fight saying an additional 800 million would be added over the next three years.

At the current rate, the coins that have not yet been introduced to the market would be worth about $24 billion.

Initially, Trump was opposed to cryptocurrencies, but he sharply changed his position during his 2024 presidential campaign, becoming a champion of the concept and promising to develop the sector, in particular by easing regulations.

Prior to this new announcement, Trump-linked entrepreneurs in October launched an online cryptocurrency platform called World Liberty Financial.

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