Trump launches his own meme coin called $TRUMP, days before his inauguration

"My NEW Official Trump Meme is HERE! It's time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING!" Trump posted Friday night on Truth Social.

President-elect Donald Trump has announced the launch of his own meme coin, just days before his inauguration.

“My NEW Official Trump Meme is HERE! It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING!” Trump posted Friday night on X.

The cryptocurrency token features an image of Trump from the July assassination attempt, showing him raising a fist with the words “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT” superimposed over it.

The coin has become the 22nd largest cryptocurrency as of Monday morning (AEDT), trading at just over $US48 with a market capitalisation of around $US9.6 ($A15.48) billion, according to CoinGecko.

It once soared to around $US70 but dropped sharply after Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, posted about a meme coin linked to her.

Trump included a link in his post directing users to a website where the coin can be purchased.

The site describes the coin as “fungible crypto assets created and tracked on the Solana blockchain”.

The venture is organised by CIC Digital LLC, a Trump-owned company that controls 80 per cent of the coin’s total supply of 200 million tokens.

The tokens will be available immediately, with plans to release a total of one billion coins over the next three years — all while Trump is in the White House.

The meme coin’s website featured the disclaimer: “Trump Memes are intended to function as an expression of support for, and engagement with, the ideals and beliefs embodied by the symbol “$TRUMP” and the associated artwork, and are not intended to be, or to be the subject of, an investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any type.

“GetTrumpMemes.com is not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign or any political office or governmental agency.”

Back in 2019, Trump said he was not a fan of bitcoin, dismissing it as “based on thin air”.

Now, he has made it clear that he will be working to promote the cryptocurrency industry.