TRUMP: Donald Trump's Meteoric Yet Chaotic Memecoin

What Is TRUMP?

TRUMP is the official memecoin of US President Donald Trump, launched on the Solana network on the Friday evening of 17 January 2025 (US Time). TRUMP was launched ahead of his Presidential inauguration on 20 January, and it quickly became Solana’s largest memecoin over the weekend, shattering many of Solana’s records in the process.

Key Takeaways

• TRUMP is the official memecoin launched and endorsed by the 47th US President, Donald Trump on 17 January 2025.

• TRUMP grew to over $13 billion in market capitalization, becoming Solana’s largest memecoin in under 2 days.

• TRUMP’s launch spurred the SOL token to all time highs while attracting over 200 thousand new users to the network.

This article is not an endorsement of Donald Trump, nor is it financial advice for users to participate and purchase in the TRUMP token. TRUMP is an extremely volatile memecoin with no intrinsic value, and investing in it carries significant financial risk.

On January 17, Donald Trump launched the official TRUMP memecoin, where the token price rose to a high of  $73.43 prior to his inauguration. 

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. Go to https://t.co/GX3ZxT5xyq — Have Fun! pic.twitter.com/flIKYyfBrC

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2025

TRUMP Tokenomics

Token Contract Address (CA): 6p6xgHyF7AeE6TZkSmFsko444wqoP15icUSqi2jfGiPN (retrievable from: https://cgecko-proxy.deepspace.workers.dev/en/coins/official-trump)

Maximum token supply: 1 billion

Initial circulating token supply: 200 million

Locked Token Allocation

The TRUMP token is allocated to 8 different groups in total. 80% of the token supply is locked and will go to 6 groups of “Creators & CIC Digital”, which are Donald Trump’s team members as well as CIC Digital, an affiliate of the Trump organization. These tokens will be vested for a total of 36 months (3 years), with differing vesting cliffs for each group (starting at 3 months). Once the vesting cliff has passed, the tokens will be linearly released daily.

Liquid Token Supply

Of the 20% of tokens (200 million TRUMP)  that are liquid, half (100 million) is managed by the Trump team, for liquidity provision purposes on centralized exchanges (CEX) and Solana decentralized exchanges (DEX). The other half is distributed to the public via the open market (on DEXs and CEXs).

Did Trump Dump $500 Million of TRUMP?

During the hectic weekend of TRUMP’s launch, it was alleged that Trump’s team had dumped $500 million worth of his tokens. According to blockchain analytics firm Arkham, the TRUMP tokens had been moved to on-chain liquidity pools in line with the team’s tokenomics as described above.

What triggered the allegations was likely due to the removal of $20 million worth of USDC, as well as sending $92M worth of TRUMP to CEXs. This movement of funds appears to be normal, as it is common for team members to seed liquidity to CEXs prior to token listings. Coinbase, Binance and many other CEXs soon announced token listings for the TRUMP token.

However, the Trump team has clearly benefitted from TRUMP’s launch, securing over $7 million in liquidity fees, which they used to buy $7 million worth of SOL. 

While the accusation that the team has sold $500 million of TRUMP tokens appear unfounded, as mentioned above, the team may and likely has liquidated some TRUMP tokens for liquidity provision. It has additionally been reported by crypto tracker Bubble Maps that they have sold $20 million worth of TRUMP tokens. This is likely where the $20M of USDC originated from and likely will be used for liquidity provision of the TRUMP/USDC pair, the most popular asset pairing for TRUMP on Solana DEXs. While all of this is in line with the tokenomics detailed, this type of fund movement will likely produce downwards price pressure on the TRUMP token.

Shattering Records

Upon launch, TRUMP set new benchmarks in the crypto space.

Fastest and largest memecoin on the Solana Network

In just under two days, TRUMP grew from nothing to a market capitalization of over $13 billion, surpassing Shiba Inu (SHIB), to become the largest memecoin on Solana and the second largest memecoin in all of crypto.

JUST IN: $TRUMP has just flipped $SHIB to become the 2nd largest meme coin by market cap pic.twitter.com/Pg3SPKWqIC

— CoinGecko (@coingecko) January 19, 2025

Record 24 Hour DEX Volume

As TRUMP was initially only available on Solana DEXs such as Meteora, Raydium and Orca, daily trading volume on-chain surged to over $10 billion on Solana, the first chain ever to hit this milestone.

🚨BREAKING: Solana breaks all records as 24H DEX trading volume skyrockets to $10B, the first chain ever to hit this milestone. With 49% dominance, Solana’s volume now outpaces the combined total of all other chains. pic.twitter.com/baznwiF07l

— SolanaFloor (@SolanaFloor) January 18, 2025

Pushing Solana to All Time Highs

On the back of the success of TRUMP, the Solana network surged in activity and transactions. Solana news reporter, Solana Floor reports over 200 thousand users being onboarded to the network via fiat on-ramp platform, MoonShot.

As a result of the increased activity and interest, the SOL token surged past a price of $293, marking a new all time high, momentarily surpassing USDT in market capitalization, the first time this had happened.

The Rise of a New Category?

While memecoins are not a new concept, this is the first time a memecoin has been launched officially by a politician. We have seen something similar before with the rise of celebrity memecoins such as IGGY. It is unclear if TRUMP will spark a new wave of crypto memecoins, tokens launched by politicians, but the success of TRUMP is likely to cause serious discussions where more politicians may follow suit. If that is the case, the phrase “vote with your wallet” takes on a new meaning, where the community shows their support for politicians and parties through memecoins.

Melania Trump Controversy

The first lady of the US, Donald Trump’s wife, Melania Trump shocked the world on 20 January launching her own memecoin similar to that of Trump. The launch of MELANIA raised many eyebrows as it launched just after TRUMP, with 89% of the token supply reportedly controlled by a single wallet as per Bubblemaps.

This is speculation but it would seem like the Trump family had been surprised by the success of TRUMP and wanted to replicate it with another launch via MELANIA. What ensued was complete mayhem, as the market reacted negatively to this perceived cash grab. TRUMP crashed down to $40 from $70 and SOL crashed down to $200 on-chain while CEXs continued to list prices of $250. The mismatch of price caused a wave of arbitrage trading, alongside the massive increase in transaction volume. This resulted in the Solana network facing heavy congestion, with gas fees skyrocketing and many being unable to sell.

Conclusion

It is unclear if there will be legal ramifications of a politician releasing and endorsing a crypto memecoin as there is no precedent for this. With the token launching over the weekends, there has been no backlash from US regulators thus far. However, what can be said is that if this was Trump’s marketing campaign, it has been highly successful in bringing global press attention to him before his Presidential inauguration on the 20 January 2025. 

Users who have or are thinking of buying the TRUMP token are advised to take caution as the circumstances surrounding it have been highly unprecedented. That being said, the effects the TRUMP token has brought to the Solana network has been largely positive, with many applauding Trump’s choice of token launch network.