Donald Trump ‘Official’ Memecoin Makes Millionaires, Raffles $3B Volumes in Hours
Is the coin real?
That was the question plaguing crypto traders from U.S. to Asia alike as an “official” memecoin linked to Republican Donald Trump was issued in early Asian hours Saturday from his verified X and Truth Social accounts.
Prices ran from few cents to $14 in less than six hours amid widespread confusion on whether the token was actually backed by Trump or was a possible hack of Trump’s account with a fake token issued by the attacker to fleece unsuspecting buyers.
CoinDesk could not independently confirm if the token was legit or not as of early European hours Saturday.
The token — which is viewed with scepticism among some traders — has attracted $3 billion in trading volumes hours after going live and commands a $2 billion market capitalization at current prices. It has netted early buyers over $70 million in paper gains, and smaller traders as much as $1 million, onchain data shows.
The apparent move comes days before Trump takes office on Jan.20, and is the first time a sitting president will give their liking to a memecoin. It’s the latest in a long list of crypto-related businesses and products linked to Trump — with the Republican having previously issued multiple NFTs and the relatively new decentralized finance platform World Liberty Financial.