Author: Hashkey Capital
According to Artemis data, the memecoin sector swept the entire industry in 2024, with its price performance exceeding 218%, surpassing all asset classes. Behind this astonishing performance are various well-known memecoins that have already achieved unicorn status and widespread community support, such as DOGE, POPCAT, VIRTUAL, PNUT, and FARTCOIN. The symbolic meaning, culture, community, and true decentralized nature of memecoins have attracted many users to participate in them easily. While some of them represent specific stories, animals, or even beliefs in artificial intelligence, they have been overshadowed by a new emerging narrative in 2025: the political meme. The memecoin leading this narrative growth is TRUMP, which was launched by the first US president, Donald Trump, to take a friendly attitude towards cryptocurrencies.
How did the market reach this point?
On January 17, 2025, Donald Trump first announced the launch of "TRUMP" on his social media accounts, and three days later, he would be officially sworn in as the President of the United States. In less than 24 hours after the launch, the token's market capitalization soared to $4.8 billion, with a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $24.3 billion. At its peak on January 19, the token price reached $75.35, with an FDV of $75.35 billion, ranking it among the top 20 cryptocurrencies, even surpassing Dogecoin to become the largest memecoin by market capitalization.
What does the rapid rise of $TRUMP mean?
Unlike other types of meme coins in the market, TRUMP is an example of a political meme coin, symbolizing the courage and vitality of this cryptocurrency-friendly president. You may remember that he had survived an assassination attempt during the election campaign. In addition to serving as president, Donald Trump is also a successful businessman, controlling the Trump Organization, which has hundreds of subsidiaries and subsidiaries using the Trump brand. Now, with the launch of TRUMP, this marks another attempt by Trump to leverage his personal brand, and the project has quickly achieved success, ranking among the top 20 cryptocurrencies.
TRUMP is not only a speculative asset driven by community culture, but its future performance may also be influenced by various factors, such as Trump's political stance on the crypto industry, financial policies, and regulatory relaxation.
Celebrity Effect: From NFT to Memecoin
It is worth noting that Trump had previously participated in the industry through the issuance of NFTs, but the attention and capital he attracted were far less than the current memecoin. The reasons behind this may be multifaceted, such as the lack of liquidity of NFTs compared to fungible tokens (FTs), and the infrastructure (trading platforms, trading bots, etc.) currently available for memecoins is more advanced than during the 2021 NFT craze.
Trump may bring a "demonstration" effect to the entire industry, and in 2025, more celebrities, stars, and KOLs may choose to use the form of memecoin issuance to create momentum or raise funds. However, as some analyses have pointed out, the reason why Trump and his wife Melania chose to issue the coin on the weekend before their official inauguration may be to avoid conflicts of interest. In the future, if other celebrities or organizations issue coins, there may also be compliance concerns. The celebrity effect in 2025 remains to be further observed, but it is an interesting start.
The Community Power Behind Trump Coin
The previous memecoin craze in the industry has also laid the foundation for building a strong community base. Even before the official launch of the Trump coin, there were already many community-issued memecoins, such as MAGA, reflecting the active participation of the community. Furthermore, Trump's choice to launch on the Solana platform rather than Ethereum or other smart contract platforms can also be attributed to Solana's vibrant and dynamic meme community.
These phenomena indicate that the "attention economy" driven by memecoins may receive more attention in the near future. Although memecoins carry huge risks of speculation and price volatility, the crypto community has demonstrated its value and power through the increasing number of memecoins. Project teams that can focus on community value, emotions, and voices are more likely to succeed in the future than those who only focus on narratives.
Potential Risks
Memecoins are essentially highly speculative and volatile assets, and TRUMP is no exception. Within hours of its launch, TRUMP's trading volume surpassed DOGE, and various centralized and decentralized exchanges quickly announced the listing of TRUMP. As of the writing of this article, its 24-hour trading volume has reached $42.2 billion, surpassing blue-chip cryptocurrencies like XRP, SOL, and DOGE. In addition to the aforementioned factors that may affect the price, it is worth noting that the majority of the tokens are currently unlocked. This poses a significant concentration holding risk, as 80% of the tokens are held by an entity jointly owned by the Trump organization's subsidiary CIC Digital LLC and a company called Fight Fight Fight LLC. Token investors should pay attention to the upcoming liquidity unlocking events, which may be reflected in their unlocking schedule and could exacerbate price volatility.
Source: trumpmemes.com
Outlook
Donald Trump's successful inauguration has made him the first US president to take a friendly attitude towards cryptocurrencies, marking a new stage of development for the crypto industry, as he has promised to issue executive orders related to cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, within the first few days of his term. With a majority of pro-crypto members in the House and Senate, and the well-known crypto-friendly Paul Atkins being selected as the chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), we can expect clearer regulations and a more favorable environment for mainstream digital asset applications. Although the future of the TRUMP coin remains to be observed, its launch not only represents a speculative asset but also demonstrates a commitment to supporting the crypto industry through improved regulatory transparency and friendly policies to mainstream cryptocurrencies. This also paves the way for other countries to emulate, as leaders around the world are gradually taking a positive attitude towards the crypto industry, led by the United States.
