Trump Launches Solana Memecoin, But Is It Legit?

Donald Trump’s social media accounts announced the launch of a new Solana-based memecoin called $TRUMP on Friday night. Within minutes of the announcement, the cryptocurrency began trading in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The announcement was first shared on Truth Social and shortly after on Trump’s X (formerly Twitter) account. Both posts featured identical language promoting $TRUMP, alongside a link to a website that resembles those used for Trump’s past NFT collections.

“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 posts read.

The coin’s website credits CIC Digital, the same official licensee behind Trump’s NFT collections from 2022 and 2023. The infrastructure and deployment of the site also align with Trump’s earlier ventures, leading some to conclude that it’s legitimate.

The memecoin immediately gained traction. As of now, $TRUMP is trading at $8.32 with a self-reported market cap of $6.7 billion. However, 80% of the tokens are locked and will gradually unlock over the next three years, making the circulating supply—and its true market cap—much smaller.

Blockchain tracking sites show that the coin has generated roughly $680 million in trading volume in its first hours of existence, placing it among the most actively traded new cryptocurrencies.

The Case for $TRUMP Being Legitimate

If this is a sanctioned Trump project, it would align with his recent pro-crypto stance. Trump has previously dipped his toes into Web3 with multiple NFT collections, and he’s publicly endorsed World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance platform.

Observers have pointed out that the $TRUMP website is remarkably similar to Trump’s NFT sites, down to the hosting provider, Heroku. This consistency has led blockchain experts like the pseudonymous engineer cygaar to suggest that the same team likely deployed both projects.

Additionally, the posts on X and Truth Social have remained live for over 12 hours, with no follow-up indicating a hack or disavowal from Trump’s team.

Trump’s presidency has also leaned heavily into memes and online engagement, so launching an official memecoin as a cultural and financial rallying point wouldn’t be entirely out of character.

Further, he’s close with Elon Musk, who owns X. If it were a hack, he’s got direct access to the owner of the platform– which is more than the 99.99% of people who have had their X profile hacked.

The Case for Skepticism: Is Trump’s Memecoin a Scam?

Despite the evidence pointing to legitimacy, there are reasons to remain cautious.

First, the coin’s funding origins have raised eyebrows. On-chain sleuths discovered that the project was seeded with millions of dollars from wallets linked to Binance and Gate.io, exchanges that do not cater to U.S. customers. For a project tied to a U.S. president, this is an unusual choice—and potentially problematic from a regulatory perspective.

Second, Trump’s high-profile status makes his accounts a prime target for hackers. One red flag is that the top ten holders have 86% of the coin, and the contract ownership is not renounced.

The crypto industry has seen countless examples of high-profile figures’ accounts being compromised to promote pump-and-dump scams. In most cases, the hacked posts are quickly deleted, but the extended time these posts have remained live complicates the picture.

Lastly, while the coin is trading actively, many memecoins experience sharp rises followed by equally sharp declines as liquidity dries up or early adopters sell off their holdings. Whether $TRUMP holds its value or proves to be a speculative bubble remains to be seen.

So, What if $TRUMP is Real?

If $TRUMP is legitimate, it could signal a major shift in Trump’s approach to cryptocurrency, and a conversation would need to be had about the role of memecoins here on out.

As a sitting president, his endorsement of a memecoin would elevate the conversation around crypto to the highest levels of global politics– and likely not in a good way.

A Trump-backed memecoin would also present opportunities and risks for the U.S. crypto market. On one hand, it could rally his supporters around blockchain technology, potentially boosting adoption. On the other, it raises questions about the regulatory implications of a president directly promoting a cryptocurrency.

What It Means If $TRUMP is a Scam

If Trump’s accounts were hacked, this could go down as one of the most sophisticated scams in crypto history. The resemblance to Trump’s past NFT projects, combined with the coin’s rapid adoption, suggests that the attackers put significant effort into making the project appear authentic.

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