President-elect Donald Trump's "official" meme coin, TRUMP, has surged to a near $14 billion market capitalization within hours of its launch

The Solana-based meme token was unveiled early on Saturday, two days before Trump's inauguration as the 47th US president.

President-elect Donald Trump's 'official' meme coin, TRUMP, has soared to a near $14 billion market capitalization within hours of its launch, cryptocurrency trackers show.

The Solana-based meme token was unveiled early on Saturday, two days before Trump's inauguration as the 47th US president.

The token began trading at an opening price of $0.1824, but within five hours the price jumped over 8,000%, trading at roughly $14.4 as of 08:00 GMT, according to Dexscreener. Its market cap stood at $14 billion at the time.

Over 66,000 buyers have so far bought the token, outpacing the nearly 18,000 sellers. Liquidity also surged, topping $388 million.

Trump announced the launch of the coin on his official Truth Social and X accounts.

"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," the president-elect wrote on his social media platform.

The crypto community initially voiced concerns about the token's legitimacy, with some warning of a possible hack or social engineering scheme. Pseudonymous blockchain engineer cygaar noted on X that the project's official website mirrors those of Trump's previous NFT collections and suggested that "either this is the greatest cyber heist of all time, or this is legitimate." However, as Trump's posts remained online, and with Polymarket data suggesting only a 10% chance of account compromise, skepticism began to subside, pushing the price of the token further up.

The token's explosive growth has also drawn concerns regarding its allocation.

"80% of the token supply is locked in a multisignature wallet, amounting to $3 billion controlled by the creator, who also added $40 million in liquidity," Conor Grogan, head of product business operations at Coinbase, said in a post on X, adding that the project was seeded with millions of dollars of funds from Binance and Gate, two exchanges that don't serve US customers. Other analysts noted that 80% of the token's circulating supply is allocated to Fight Fight Fight LLC and CIC Digital LLC, entities linked to the Trump Organization, with only 20% of the supply split equally between public investors and liquidity.

The launch of TRUMP comes as the president-elect continues to align himself with cryptocurrency initiatives. Once an outspoken crypto-skeptic, he made a U-turn during his election campaign and pledged to reshape the US cryptocurrency landscape to make the country the "crypto capital of the planet." Paul Atkins, Trump's pick to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is expected to spearhead these efforts. A known crypto advocate and former SEC commissioner, Atkins will replace Gary Gensler, who has been criticized for his crackdown on the industry.