First, some very brief context. Trump is taking office after an administration that was notoriously anti-crypto under Gary Gensler’s SEC. Meanwhile, Trump’s inner circle has already leveraged crypto for significant gains. Over the years, Trump has personally profited from some questionable, but on-brand Trump NFT collections launched through CIC Digital.
Trump has launched several digital trading card collections. Source: Trump Cards
Meanwhile, the long-suffering crypto industry, desperate for regulatory relief, heavily supported Trump’s campaign, donating more money than almost any other U.S. industry. Crypto lobbying took various forms. In addition to making financial contributions, crypto companies organized rallies and grassroots support through initiatives like Stand With Crypto, a campaign launched by Coinbase to generate public support for pro-crypto politicians. It was successful. As part of the process, the Trumps themselves became crypto fans with Eric, Barron, and Don Jr involved with the launch of the Trump’s crypto project World Liberty DeFi.
Hosting a high-profile, invite-only crypto celebration seemed like the logical thank-you. The black tie Crypto Ball was a hugely successful event. It was attended by the best and brightest from across the crypto world. It was amusing to see the crypto OGs out on force in black tie. For example, chainlink’s Sergey Nazarov, a fiercely independent thinker who always wears a plaid shirt, played the part and wore black tie.
Sergey Nazarov and Chris Barrett from Chainlink at the Crypto Ball, Source: X
The Twist of the Knife
During the height of this exclusive event, with crypto’s elite and Trump’s closest allies gathered under one roof, Trump pulled off a vicious move straight out of the Game of Thrones’ Red Wedding playbook.
He launched $TRUMP, which skyrocketed to a staggering $15 billion valuation almost instantly, leaving the attendees blindsided. What was meant to be a celebration of unity and inclusion turned into a masterstroke of betrayal, as Trump flipped the script, unveiling the fastest-ever $15 billion memecoin—without letting anyone in the room know beforehand. It was a ruthless display of power, reminding everyone that the real game is his to command.
While The Crypto Ball raged on, Trump made his move, announcing the Trump Meme coin on X. Source: X
Imagine the sheer audacity: at what was touted as the ultimate crypto gathering, where attendees felt like insiders, Trump flipped the script by launching the fastest-ever $15B meme coin—without including them.
A Vulgar Display of Power
Attendees included Snoop Dogg, Don Jr., Vivek Ramaswamy, Speaker Johnson, Michael Saylor, and prominent crypto executives—all gathered to “kiss the ring.” Yet, Trump didn’t share the spoils. Instead, he demonstrated his dominance, showing that his inner circle is the only one that matters in crypto now.
This move sent a clear message: Trump controls the narrative in the crypto space. By launching $TRUMP during the event, he effectively relegated everyone else to the sidelines, leaving the crypto elite to watch his success unfold in real time—powerless.
The Bigger Picture
Meanwhile, the Trumps are building World Liberty Financial, their DeFi platform, poised to pick winners and losers in the crypto market. By positioning themselves to front-run the industry, they’ve set the stage to dominate the space and rake in untold profits.
What’s worse? Trump used the industry’s eagerness for change against it. He threw an extravagant party, sold the dream of inclusion, and simultaneously launched a memecoin without them. Now, the industry belongs to him—whether they like it or not.
Eric Trump says World Liberty will revolutionize DeFi/Cefi and will be the future of finance. Source: X
Trump Meme Coin Allocation
There were 200 million $TRUMP coins available on day one and this will grow to a total of 1 billion $TRUMP over three years. Each group’s allocation is released on their own schedule over 3 years.
Source: Gettrumpmemes.com
Is Trump a Hero or Villain?
Crypto is at a crossroads here. While the allure of quick money and short-term excitement is irresistible to many, this moment reveals how easily Trump—a talented charismatic master of the grift—could co-opt the industry for personal gain.
There is still an opportunity for Trump to redeem himself. An announcement of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve would go a long way to showing that he does understand the difference between Bitcoin and a Trump meme coin. That would be the Trump Hero arc for Bitcoiners.
Or if Trump announces an American Crypto Reserve that includes Solana, XRP, and USDC coin, that would be the Trump hero arc for alt coins.
With a more measured take, Chris Burniske wrote on X, that “Trump’s meme coin is a lightning rod topic, and there’s a huge amount of dispersion in the market Haven’t bought any, won’t buy any, and am uncomfortable with the fact his orgs appear to own 80% of the supply.
That said, this is the highest publicity memecoin launch we’ve seen yet, quickly scaling past $30B FDV, and that is catching eyeballs everywhere. It could be similar to Ethereum’s “The DAO” moment of 2016, which was also a major lightning rod topic, but after raising ~$150M very quickly (catching eyeballs everywhere) I believe it to have catalyzed the ICO craze of 2017.
Once people see the scale at which something can be done, it encourages them to experiment. Permissionless innovation is wild and messy, and sometimes supremely cringe – but it is representative of society as a whole. I encourage everyone to see all sides of a situation and its ramifications, even if the knee-jerk reaction is negative.”
Meanwhile, Jeff Dorman, CEO of Digital assets investment company Arca, was much more positive. He wrote on X, “The TRUMP token just signaled to every company, municipality, university & individual brand that crypto can now be used as a capital formation and customer bootstrapping mechanism. NYC will have a token Harvard will have a token Netflix will have a token.
We have now officially left the “dot-crypto” phase of blockchain. All of the existing use cases of crypto are from crypto-native companies, but going forward, the whole world will now come up with creative ways to use tokens.
IMO, the biggest upside comes from non-crypto native companies entering this space. KKR, Apollo, Nike, Starbucks, Reddit, Trump, etc bring way more users and wallets than slow crypto-native organic growth. IMO, every company, university, celebrity, & municipality will have a token.
And once that happens, many of the current useless tokens and projects will die, but the biggest and best will thrive with millions of new investors, issuers, and users. If you’re an investment banker, you have to start pitching token ideas to clients.
Now. The immediate price action on Friday night suggests that crypto is now a joke and the only winner will be the blockchain that issues joke tokens ($SOL). But that’s short-sighted and a circumstance of weekend illiquidity more than anything.
So based on price action, the interpretation of the TRUMP token is that the future of crypto is now a complete joke because the president launched a meme coin, but jokes are on Solana, so SOL is the winner? And those calling this the “top of the cycle” have lost their damn minds. PTSD is real, and you all have been so damaged by 2022 that you can’t even fathom what is about to come in a crypto-friendly environment.
Took me 3 years after 2008 to go all in long equities again. Psychological damage from bear markets is real. Crypto people don’t even realize how damaged they are from 2022. Almost all of them are too conservative now. They’ve forgotten how to make life changing money.
So in conclusion — while I don’t care much for meme coins or the TRUMP token myself, I do care a lot about future use cases of blockchain. And the President of the f*cking USA just green-lit all future possibilities.
Dogecoin Dips, Trump Coin Dominates, Solana Surges
Finally, let’s look at what happened in the crypto markets in the hours after the launch of the TRUMP coin. Late Friday, Donald Trump surprise-launched the TRUMP token on the Solana blockchain. The coin quickly attracted billions in trading volume, soaring into the top 40 cryptocurrencies by market cap. As traders flocked to the new token, other meme coins experienced a downturn as Trump sucked all of the liquidity out of alt coins.
Dogecoin had climbed to a one-month high of $0.43 on Friday evening but quickly lost ground after the TRUMP token news broke. As of Saturday, DOGE is trading at $0.397, down 8% from its peak and 3% over the last 24 hours. Despite the dip, DOGE remains 18% up on the week, buoyed by earlier gains. Make no mistake, Doge is going to $1 in 2025.
Doge is down 3% overnight. Source: Brave New Coin
Other major meme coins are mirroring Dogecoin’s decline. Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Pepe (PEPE) have dropped 6% and 5%, respectively, since TRUMP captured market attention and all of the liquidity.
Solana-native meme coins are faring better. Bonk (BONK) and SPX6900 (SPX) have seen only modest dips, maintaining strong weekly gains. Meanwhile, Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) is blowing past expectations, reaching a new all-time high of $1.75 on Saturday—a doubling in value over the past week.
Solana Rides the Wave
As the blockchain hosting Trump’s token, Solana has surged, jumping 10% in 24 hours to nearly $244—its highest price since November. The buzz around TRUMP has also lifted Solana’s decentralized exchange tokens. Jupiter’s JUP is up 20%, while Raydium’s RAY rose 19%. But all other coins in the top ten dumped, as Solana and Trump’s meme coin sucked all the liquidity out of the room.
Solana is up 18% riding the Trump Pump. Source: Brave New Coin
Solana and Trump’s meme coin sucked all the liquidity out of all alt coins. Source: CMC.
TRUMP Token’s Meteoric Rise
The TRUMP token, trading at around $21, briefly touched $24 earlier on Saturday. Its market cap now exceeds $27 billion, placing it as the 28th largest cryptocurrency. With over $6.8 billion in trading volume since launch, the token has cemented its status as a phenomenon.
Trump Trading volume, Source: X
Market Impact Ahead of Trump’s Inauguration
Analysts suggest Monday’s inauguration of Donald Trump for his second term won’t significantly move the broader crypto market. It’s likely that major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Solana, and XRP have already priced in the news since his election victory. As For Trump’s meme coin, what is a sensible price prediction for the Trump’s meme coin in 2025? It is too soon to say as anything can happen.
However, the unexpected launch of the official Trump meme coin has added a layer of intrigue to the markets, particularly for Solana enthusiasts. The next catalyst to move the market forward will be Trump’s announcement on a Crypto Strategic Reserve.
Will it be Bitcoin only? Will it be an American Crypto Reserve that includes Solana, XRP and USDC coin? Whatever the final outcome, not everyone will be happy, and that means expect volatility. Trump has changed the market overnight, and he hasn’t even begun his presidency. While it’s too soon to paint him as a villain or hero, it is clear that Trump plays by his own rules, and for now, he holds all of the cards.
For better or worse, crypto and the tokenization of all global assets, from art to cars to ideas, to memes is moving onto the main stage. Is crypto ready for prime time? Is the world ready for crypto degens to make an insane amount of money? During the next four years of the Trump Presidency, only one thing is for sure – things are about to get weird.
The final word goes to Raoul Pal, who said “The signal in the noise here is the velocity and simplicity of capital formation. Memes and ICOs before them were the test case but the real game is yet to come and it will completely revolutionize capital markets.”
Game on.
Source: https://bravenewcoin.com/insights/trump-meme-coin-launch-shakes-markets-is-trump-a-crypto-hero-or-villain