President Donald Trump was widely mocked after his new $Trump coin saw a staggering $30 billion loss after his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, launched $Melania, her own cryptocurrency, two days later.
Melania’s cryptocurrency launch coincided with the eve of her husband's second inauguration and came just days after Trump announced his own cryptocurrency, both of which are built and tracked on the Solana blockchain.
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On January 17, Trump posted the following message on X:
"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."
You can see his post below.
The Trump memecoin—a category of cryptocurrency commonly referred to as “s**tcoins” due to their extreme financial volatility and tendency to lose value rapidly, often rendering them worthless—appeared to soar in value and at one point accounted for about 89% of Trump's net worth.
And 48 hours later, his wife posted the following message:
"The Official Melania Meme is live! You can buy $MELANIA now."
You can see her post below.
Although the value of $Trump dropped within hours, it declined further following Melania’s announcement of her own memecoin.
Data from the CoinMarketCap website showed Trump’s cryptocurrency valued at approximately $10.6 billion, while Melania’s memecoin was worth around $2 billion. The value of several other memecoins also dipped slightly as investors shifted focus to purchasing Trump’s collectibles.
In a Monday note to clients, Bernstein analysts led by Gautam Chhugani said the First Lady's memecoin was viewed “negatively” by the market because of “further dilution” of the Trump crypto brand.
The mockery was swift.
While the Biden administration largely viewed memecoins like $TRUMP as securities subject to SEC oversight, the incoming Trump administration has promised a more crypto-friendly approach, favoring minimal or nonexistent regulation of such assets.
The emoluments clause of the Constitution was not designed to account for a scenario in which a president could generate billions of dollars simply by endorsing a meme-based cryptocurrency.
According to Axios, "it's impossible to track who's going to be buying this coin over the next three years and thereby directing their money directly at Trump," noting that the Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity last year signals "there's a good chance that any such action will be deemed lawful."
@LeeMerrittesq/X
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@jelanijones/Bluesky
@Aurkayne/X
@sadcommunistdog; @froglok/Bluesky