Trump Issues Official Meme Coin 'TRUMP' Ahead of Inauguration

The global coin market was shaken on the morning of the 18th in Korean time. This is because the world's first official meme coin appeared by the president.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has officially entered the virtual asset market.

Trump unveiled his official meme coin "TRUMP" on the evening of the 17th (local time), three days before his inauguration. Meme coins are coins that have no function.

As Solana, the network where meme coins were issued, also benefited, the price soared by nearly 20%.

According to CoinMarketCap on the 19th, the Trump meme coin "TRUMP" rose more than 10,000% within a day of its release. The market capitalization ranking of virtual assets also jumped to 25th place. It has a larger market capitalization than well-known coins such as Aptos and Ethereum Classic.

Trump meme coin was suddenly released on the 17th (local time). Donald Trump posted a post on his social network service Truth Social, saying, "My new official Trump meme coin is out."

There was speculation among virtual asset investors that Trump's SNS account might have been hacked. This is because it is three days before the presidential inauguration scheduled for the 20th.

However, the price of Trump coins rose as no additional notice was issued over time.

Trump MemeCoin, which started at $0.41 on Moonshot, a Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX), is currently trading at $37.

As Trump coins became popular, global virtual asset exchanges Binance and Bbit also rushed to list the meme coins.

According to the official website description, Trump Coin will limit its initial supply to 200 million and then expand its overall supply to 1 billion over the next three years.

Virtual assets usually calculate market capitalization based on current circulation. Based on the final supply of 1 billion units, the total market capitalization is currently $38.4 billion.

The 800 million coins that will be distributed in the market in the future are all held by CIC Digital, a non-fungible token (NFT) company owned by Trump. Currently, CIC Digital has about $30.7 billion (about 45 trillion won) in assets based on market price.

Some criticize that Trump's issuance of meme coins ahead of his inauguration could have a conflict of interest. Jordan Ribowitz, vice chairman of the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CRE), pointed out, "It is very unusual for the president-elect to make economic gains on his own by promising to ease industrial regulations."

Solana's price also soared by about 20% as Trump meme coins became popular. The Trump coin was issued through the Solana network. Of course, it is a structure that can be traded on Solana DEX.

Solana DEX is the key currency of Solana. You need to buy Solana to buy Trump coins. Coins belonging to the Solana ecosystem, such as Jupiter (JUP) and RAT, also saw their prices rise.

Other meme coins plunged as Trump meme coins took all the liquidity in the market. Dogecoin fell by about 6%, while Shiba Inu and PepeCo fell by 7% and 8%, respectively.