Just days before his second inauguration, President-elect Donald Trump issued a cryptocurrency meme coin memorializing his response to the July 2024 assassination attempt.
The new $TRUMP meme coin – a type of cryptocurrency – launched Friday night with posts on Trump’s Truth Social social media platform and on X, the social network previously known as Twitter. According to the coin’s website, gettrumpmemes.com, there are 200 million $TRUMP coins available now, with plans to have 1 billion over the next three years.
The site deems Trump as “the crypto president,” and the coin portrays the President-elect with “his fist in the air and the iconic battle cry FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT,” Trump called out after the July 13, 2024 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
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What is a meme coin?
Meme coins are a type of cryptocurrency usually inspired by internet memes, often a pop culture image or trend. A well-known meme starred the Japanese dog Kabosu that became a popular meme online in the early 2010s.
Then in 2013, Kabosu became the face of Dogecoin, which became one of the most popular “meme stocks” during the COVID-19 pandemic retail trading boom. Elon Musk famously changed the logo of Twitter to the Dogecoin logo in April 2023, CNBC previously reported.
Trump has named Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to co-lead the new Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.).
How much is the new Trump meme coin?
On Saturday at 1 p.m. ET, the Trump coin was trading at about $31, according to crypto exchange GeckoTerminal. When trading started, the coin’s value was 18 cents, the site said.
Trump coin had a fully diluted valuation of about $31.37 billion and a market cap of more than $6.27 billion, as of noon Saturday.
“‘Trump Coin’ has taken the cryptocurrency world by storm, potentially positioning itself to challenge Dogecoin’s supremacy in the meme coin ecosystem,” wrote London-based fintech analyst Boaz Sobrado on Forbes.com.
“The stunning launch of $TRUMP caught the entire industry off-guard, and speaks to both (Trump’s) personal influence and the ascendancy of cryptocurrency in his administration,” wrote Axios’ reporters Ben Berkowitz and Brady Dale.
Trump’s cryptocurrency move, they said, swiftly appeared to make more than $25 billion on paper for himself and his companies.”
According to the coin’s website, CIC Digital LLC, which is an affiliate of The Trump Organization, and Fight Fight Fight LLC, which is co-owned by CIC Digital, collectively own 80% of the coins. The coins are subject to a 3-year unlocking schedule, which means those holdings cannot be dumped all at once, Axios reported.
When the Trump coin announcement hit social media, there were “serious questions about the legitimacy” of the cryptocurrency, reported the Crypto Briefing news site. But the new project is likely the work of those who helped on Trump’s “America First Collection” of digital trading cards, the site reported.
Investors should remember that cryptocurrencies can be volatile. Those who buy the new coin must agree to terms and conditions including agreeing not to bring future class action lawsuits, a move to help reduce the financial risk of the company and issuers, Newsweek reported.
Trump merch: Sneakers, Bibles, NFTs and now meme coins
This is just the latest of Trump’s merchandising offers, which have included Trump sneakers, victory cologne, watches – including one model for $100,000 – and Bibles.
You can buy Trump coin using the Moonshot app. There could be more cryptocurrency offers coming during Trump’s term. Paul Atkins, his pick to head the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, is considered crypto-friendly compared to outgoing Democratic SEC head Gary Gensler.
And Trump is considering the creation of a strategic reserve of bitcoin, which is considered the first successful digital currency.
Trump’s crypto deals are a natural progression of his brand-building, which has included Trump hotels and casinos, Forbes’ Sobrado wrote.
“The emergence of a presidential meme coin might seem unprecedented, but in the context of Trump’s brand-leveraging history, it follows a familiar pattern,” he wrote. “The president has consistently demonstrated his ability to monetize his personal brand. What’s different this time isn’t the strategy, but the medium – and ironically, the regulatory environment that made it possible.”
Contributing: Jonathan Limehouse and Bailey Schulz, USA TODAY
Follow Mike Snider on Threads, Bluesky and X: mikegsnider &@mikegsnider.bsky.social &@mikesnider.
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