Trump meme coin dramatically crashes as Melania's coin hits Crypto: ‘Beyond insane’

Donald Trump's memecoin saw a rapid rise before crashing 40% after the launch of Melania Trump's $MELANIA coin, which surged to a $5 billion market cap.

The crypto world was rocked this weekend as Donald Trump’s "official" memecoin made a grand debut ahead of his inauguration, briefly soaring in value before crashing spectacularly. Melania Trump, the incoming First Lady introduced her own meme coin, $MELANIA, on January 20 (late Sunday US time). This new coin caused a temporary 50% drop in the value of her husband’s $TRUMP memecoin.

“The official Melania Meme is live! You can buy $MELANIA now," Melania dropped the announcement across her social media handles right before Trump's DC victory rally. This new coin rapidly gained attention, with the price rising to over $5 and a market cap exceeding $5 billion, according to Forbes. Melania made the announcement herself on X (formerly Twitter), encouraging traders to buy her coin.

Trump's coin skyrocketed upon its debut, reaching a staggering $14 billion in market value, making it one of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap. However, the excitement was short-lived.

Melania’s coin's debut had an immediate impact on the value of Trump's memecoin. Within minutes of the announcement, Trump’s coin lost nearly 40% of its value, with many traders including those who earlier invested in Trump token quickly selling off their holdings to buy into the new $MELANIA coin. Analysts observed that the price of Trump's token had dropped by $7.5 billion in just 10 minutes following the coin launch.

The Kobeissi Letter analysts took to X to declare, “This is beyond insane. Less than 48 hours ago, Donald Trump launched $trump which just erased $7.5 billion in market cap in 10 minutes. In the minutes around the launch of Melania Trump's token, we saw massive sell orders in $trump."#MelaniaTrumpLaunchesToken $BTC $XRP