The most notable cryptocurrency event in January 2025 was the launch of a token called TRUMP by the former US President Trump. The token reached a market capitalization of $80 billion at its peak and significantly impacted the liquidity of other Meme coins in the market. As of now, the price of the TRUMP token is around $40.
Although this model is difficult to replicate directly, as not everyone has such social status and influence, the success of the TRUMP token provides some observable investment trends and market reactions. Investors can learn from this how to evaluate crypto assets related to celebrities and understand the market's acceptance of such projects.
Early Stage: A Closer Look at the TRUMP Issuance Details
December 21, 2024: The domain gettrumpmemes.com was purchased.
January 17, 2025: Initial minting.
January 18, 2025: Around 10 AM, a DEX trading pair was created, and trading began.
20 minutes later, Trump posted on his Truth Social account to announce the launch of his personal Meme coin TRUMP.
45 minutes later, Trump released an official tweet to reiterate the announcement.
January 18, 2025: Around 12 PM, the TRUMP market cap surpassed $8 billion, all within 2 hours.
January 18, 2025: In the evening, Trump's son Eric Trump confirmed the "legitimacy" of TRUMP.
These are the key information points about TRUMP on its launch day, but even so, the interpretations of each point vary.
For example, when Trump first announced the news on his Truth Social account, many media outlets or KOLs warned of the "potential account hacking" risk, which deterred many people. However, some KOLs analyzed that when they saw the news, they still clicked through to the gettrumpmemes.com official website and, based on the website introduction, the initial TRUMP purchase required going through Moonshot, which supported traditional payment methods like Apple Pay, Visa, Mastercard, Venmo, as well as crypto payments like USDC and SOL. Their first reaction was not to suspect it was a phishing site, as the website could redirect to Moonshot, and they believed an on-chain meme or a fake one could not convince Moonshot to list it, so this detail alone made them purchase TRUMP.
Furthermore, after Trump's accounts on both platforms confirmed the authenticity, those who got on board believed the market cap was too high, and the coin price was too high, and that TRUMP would correct after breaking $10, causing a significant portion of people to "timely" exit after getting on board.
Mid-Stage: Major Exchanges "Rapidly" Listed, Treated as the King of Memes
As one of the first platforms to list TRUMP, Moonshot also saw a surge in user growth during this hype. On January 18, the platform saw a single-day increase of 400,000 new users, with the daily active user count exceeding 1 million. Additionally, mainstream centralized exchanges listed TRUMP successively from January 18 to January 19, with the listing speed and scale being among the top for many well-known Memes.
Huobi's announcement on listing TRUMP spot trading: 5:40 PM (UTC+8), January 18, 2025
Bitget's announcement on listing TRUMP spot trading: 6:40 PM (UTC+8), January 18, 2025
BitMart's announcement on listing TRUMP spot trading: 11:00 PM (UTC+8), January 18, 2025
OKEx's announcement on listing TRUMP spot trading: 1:00 PM (UTC+8), January 19, 2025
Binance's announcement on listing TRUMP spot trading: 4:30 PM (UTC+8), January 19, 2025
Late Stage: Belated Awareness, Website Surprisingly Contains Class Action Waiver
On the first day of TRUMP's listing, everyone's attention was focused on the coin price and market cap performance, and it wasn't until the second day that someone discovered the "disclaimer" on the official website.
The TRUMP purchase terms included a class action waiver clause. The clause states: "To the fullest extent permitted by law, Investors agree not to initiate, join, or participate in any class action claims, disputes, or controversies against any Covered Persons. Investors agree to seek injunctive relief to stop such litigation or remove themselves as participants. Investors agree to pay any attorneys' fees and litigation costs incurred by any Covered Persons in seeking such relief. This clause prohibits Investors from initiating, joining, or participating in class actions: (i) does not constitute a waiver of any individual claims or remedies Investors may have, nor a waiver of class arbitration in the aforementioned binding arbitration; (ii) is a standalone agreement. Investors may provide written opt-out notice within thirty (30) days of first visiting the website to opt-out of these dispute resolution terms."
The core of the clause is that it prohibits purchasers from initiating or participating in class-action lawsuits against TRUMP, allowing the token issuer to avoid many risks, indicating that TRUMP was well-prepared before the launch.
Additionally, the total supply of TRUMP is 1 billion tokens, but only 200 million will be circulating initially, with the remaining 800 million belonging to Trump Group's subsidiaries CIC Digital LLC and Fight Fight Fight LLC, to be gradually unlocked over the next 3 years. However, this highly concentrated economic model means that if the market receives negative news, the issuer may use its large holdings to manipulate the market and trigger a price crash, causing significant losses for ordinary investors. Even with so many "hegemonic clauses," the fact that TRUMP is an officially recognized Trump token is enough to stir up a huge wave.
Solana Receives a Windfall, Reaching a New Historical High
TRUMP not only helped many people accumulate wealth, but it also further enhanced the value of Solana. As TRUMP chose to launch on the Solana network, which has a stronger Meme atmosphere, rather than Ethereum, the market initially interpreted it as the President "appointing" Solana and "dooming" Ethereum. Driven by this sentiment, SOL has soared significantly since the launch of TRUMP, reaching a new all-time high of over $295.
Looking at the market performance, the successful launch of the TRUMP token on the Solana ecosystem has produced a notable Matthew effect. As mentioned earlier, the Moonshot platform created $400 million in trading volume and attracted over 400,000 new users within just 12 hours, demonstrating Solana's advantages in user experience and transaction efficiency, and more importantly, strengthening the market's recognition of it as the preferred platform for new token launches. This increased recognition is forming a virtuous cycle, attracting more projects to choose Solana as their launch platform.
Conclusion
Although TRUMP was launched in a "quick and easy" Meme-style, there was obviously careful preparation behind it, with the website domain, economic model, disclaimer, and message confirmation all giving the project better packaging. It is both a bold attempt and a way for identity and power to imbue cryptocurrencies with more value. For investors, such high-certainty investment opportunities are few and far between, and if you miss out on TRUMP, there's no need to worry - just summarize the experience and wait for the next investment opportunity.
