The lead-up to Donald Trump’s inauguration has been a strange one. Last week, Grammy-award winning artist Carrie Underwood was warned her “career was over” after accepting an invitation to perform at Monday’s ceremony.
Trump then took a bizarre approach to the role of special envoy – typically chosen to respond to troubled hot spots like the Middle East – by naming Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone, and Jon Voight as “special ambassadors to the great but troubled place, Hollywood, California.” The move came after he vowed to “save TikTok” ahead of Sunday’s ban.
Now, the GOP leader has entered the world of crypto, announcing the launch of his own meme coin. Trump, who will return to office for his second non-consecutive term, introduced his new official “$TRUMP” meme coin to celebrate “WINNING”.
In a post on X on Saturday, he wrote: “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 cryptocurrency market’s response was huge, according to The Crypto Times, with one trader getting a windfall of $20 million within the first hour of the unveiling.
The price of the coin reportedly kept increasing, from $0.18 to a high of $3.70, with $TRUMP currently standing at $7.10. This marks a 4,000 per cent increase from its start, with a $6.8 billion market capitalisation.
Solana (SOL) developed the coin, creating 200 million tokens for its launch – although overall supply will be one billion in the next three years, according to the Independent.
One trader bought close to six million $TRUMP coins for around $1.1 million using USDC, according to Lookonchain. Just 90 seconds later, the investment was worth $23 million. They have apparently sold a small number, while they have the remaining 5.43 million, giving them a profit of more then $20 million.
However, the internet wasn’t fully convinced Trump’s new business venture was genuine. The X post was a hit with a number of accusations of being a “fake”. Some also wondered whether Trump’s X account had been “hacked”.
One user wrote: “Hopefully hacked, otherwise, not a good look,” while another agreed: “Stuff like this is ruining the image of crypto tbh.”
A third joked: “When the leader of the world’s reigning empire is dropping memecoin collections ahead of starting work on Monday, are we witnessing the dawn of a new era—or the beginning of the end of the US empire?”
Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance will be inaugurated indoors at the Capitol Rotunda due to freezing cold temperatures in the nation’s capital which are set to mark the coldest inauguration day in four decades.
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