While political merchandise has long been a staple of presidential campaigns, Trump‘s latest venture into cryptocurrency territory takes things to a whole new level of bizarre. The launch of $TRUMP and $MELANIA meme coins on Solana just days before Trump’s inauguration in January 2025 sent the crypto world into an absolute frenzy, with billions traded within hours.
The $TRUMP coin, featuring a cartoonish Trump with raised fist, skyrocketed to $75 before settling around $40 – a casual 400% surge from launch. By April 2025, it found its groove at $13.39, still sporting an eye-watering $8.3 billion market cap. The coin heavily promotes Trump’s image with the slogan “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT”. Two major companies, CIC Digital LLC and Fight Fight Fight LLC, control an overwhelming 80% of the meme coin’s supply.
Meanwhile, the $MELANIA token had its moment in the sun at $13.76 before taking a nosedive to a mere 49 cents. Talk about a power couple’s uneven performance.
Things got really interesting when Team Trump announced an exclusive Washington, D.C. dinner for the top 220 $TRUMP holders. Nothing says “democracy” quite like a bidding war for presidential face time. The announcement sent the token surging 71%, while ethics groups and lawmakers collectively facepalmed.
The whole circus runs on pure hype, social media buzz, and the kind of FOMO that would make a teenage influencer blush. Both tokens explicitly claim they’re just “digital collectibles” – definitely not investments, wink wink.
No actual assets back these things up. It’s basically like trading digital baseball cards, except the baseball player can tweet and make your investment go boom or bust.
The regulatory folks are having a field day with this one, particularly the dinner scheme that screams “pay-for-access.” Anti-corruption watchdogs are barking up a storm about selling influence to whoever holds the most tokens.
But in the wild west of meme coins, where community hype and viral marketing reign supreme, it’s just another day at the crypto rodeo. Just don’t expect any traditional investment logic to apply here – this market runs on vibes and viral tweets.
