Author: Lila, BlockBeats
On January 18, U.S. President Trump launched his personal official meme coin TRUMP on social media, immediately igniting the crypto market. This is the first time a national leader has issued a personal token, and within 5 hours of its launch, TRUMP's market cap exceeded $20 billion, with a peak market cap of nearly $80 billion. The president's issuance of a coin + the sustained pump behavior for nearly 24 hours also brought enough heat to the "Trump Coin".
With blessings and curses intertwined, crypto native users have not yet enjoyed the new cash flow brought by the hype of going mainstream, and the negative impact has already followed. Under Trump's "leadership", more heads of state and celebrities from all walks of life have launched their coins without restraint. TRUMP itself has also exacerbated the already tight liquidity crisis in the crypto circle. Where there is a surge, there will be a sharp decline, and the bursting of the frenzy bubble comes faster than we imagine. One month after the token was launched, the TRUMP coin price has fallen from its peak of $80 to less than $13 as of the time of writing, a drop of more than 80% from its high, while tokens such as Melania Trump's namesake meme coin MELANIA and the "Argentine President Coin" LIBRA have even fallen more than 90%.
In addition to celebrities directly issuing coins, the scammers have also found a new way: collaborating with celebrities, announcing token information, and then pretending their Twitter was hacked to distance themselves from the relationship. The well-known artist Kanye once said that someone offered $2 million for him to post a RUG pump Meme coin. From January to the present, according to incomplete statistics from BlockBeats editors, there have been no less than 15 celebrities from various fields who have launched tokens through various means. Except for TRUMP and STONKS, the rest have all fallen by more than 90%.
Celebrities Issuing Coins Openly:
TRUMP (Down 83.9% from Peak)
Peak Price: $82 Current Price: $13.23
On January 18 this year, U.S. President Trump's official social media account announced the launch of the Trump-named meme coin TRUMP, followed by tweets from Trump's personal account and his son Eric Trump confirming the "legitimacy" of TRUMP. TRUMP was listed on top trading platforms such as OKX, Coinbase, and Binance within 24 hours of its launch, setting a record for the shortest time for a token to go live on the spot market, and almost without any pullback after its release, the price broke through $70 billion in 48 hours, with a circulating market cap exceeding $140 billion and a total market cap once exceeding $700 billion.
However, the issuance of TRUMP has blurred the boundaries between politics and business. According to its official website, two subsidiaries of the Trump Group control 80% of the total token supply, with an initial circulating supply of only 200 million, and the remaining 800 million will be gradually unlocked over the next three years. This highly centralized distribution model has been criticized by insiders and politicians as "legal counterfeiting" and has directly brought the Trump family over $25 billion in paper wealth appreciation.
However, meme coins without value can ultimately not be supported, even if the coin is tied to the President of the United States. After the peak, TRUMP has slowly declined, briefly consolidated for a few days, and then "harvested" all the way down, and is now in a slump, falling from a high of $80 to $13 as of the time of writing, a drop of more than 80%. This result is both a refutation of the "policy bonus expectation" of the market and the inevitable result of excessive blood-letting of liquidity. Related reading: "Trump's Coin Allows Chinese to Make Billions, Dividing the U.S. Crypto Camp"
MELANIA (Down 93.3% from Peak)
Peak Price: $13.6 Current Price: $0.92
On January 20, after seeing the huge profits of TRUMP, the coin issuance group set its sights on Trump's wife Melania, issuing the namesake meme coin MELANIA in her name. The FDV exceeded $10 billion and the trading volume reached $658 million within 4 hours of its launch. However, the token's economic model has been widely criticized by the community: 35% for the team, 20% for the treasury, 20% for the community, 15% for public offering, and 10% for liquidity. The next day, MELANIA fell below $4, a drop of nearly 70% in 24 hours. This event not only accelerated the collapse of the TRUMP coin, but also revealed the capital logic of "family-style plunder".
In addition, the MELANIA team's tokens will start to be unlocked on February 19 and will be fully unlocked within the 13th month. Related reading: "Two Days Before Taking Office, the Trump Couple Raked in $65 Billion from the Crypto Circle"
VINE (Down 92.2% from Peak)
Peak Price: $0.49 Current Price: $0.037
On January 23, Rus Yusupov, one of the co-founders of the short video platform Vine, issued the namesake meme coin VINE. Vine was a short video platform similar to TikTok that was shut down by X (formerly Twitter) in 2016, allowing users to create and share video clips up to 10 seconds long on social networks. Since Musk's acquisition of Twitter in 2022, he has expressed the idea of restarting Vine on social media several times.
Yusupov said "I'm launching this Meme coin to commemorate the beauty of unity and creation. I won't sell my Dev token share, and all profits will be donated to X." Possibly influenced by the expectation of "Musk will interact with it", VINE's market cap once exceeded $400 million. Related reading: "Founder Launches Coin for $200 Million, Vine Under Musk's Wing Stages a Comeback"
Ainti (Down 94.23% from Peak)
Peak Price: $1.06 Current Price: $0.065
On January 23, the X account of the late antivirus software founder John McAfee posted the AI Meme coin AIntivirus (Ainti) token contract. It is reported that the tweet was forwarded by McAfee's widow Janice Elizabeth McAfee, who said that this is an initiative to commemorate her husband's genius image and carry on his legacy, and the new project will integrate McAfee's core concepts of freedom, privacy and technology, combined with cryptocurrency and AI technology. (Note: On June 23, 2021, John McAfee died in a Spanish prison.)
CAR (Down 98.33% from Peak)
Peak Price: $0.88 Current Price: $0.015
On February 10, the President of the Central African Republic launched the meme coin CAR. 3 hours after its launch, the market cap of CAR exceeded $600 million and the trading volume exceeded $300 million. According to the CAR token website, the total supply is 1 billion, but the public distribution is only 9.3%.
Tokens Launched After "Hacked" Social Accounts:
CUBA (Down 99.36% from Peak)
Peak Price: $0.02 Current Price: $0.0001
On January 20, the official X account of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after being hacked, promoted the meme token CUBA, and the original post was deleted on the same day. CUBA plummeted 99.36% within 24 hours.
FINN (Down 99% from Peak)
Peak Price: $0.009 Current Price: $0.00001
On January 21, the Farcaster account of MetaMask co-founder Dan Finlay was hacked and used to promote the Meme coin FINN. The Meme coin rug pulled on the same day, and the creator's initial funds may have come from a mixer, with profits exceeding 1,000 SOL.
STONKS (Down 53.3% from Peak)
Peak Price: $0.078 Current Price: $0.036
On January 23, the official X account of Nasdaq was hacked and posted about the Meme coin STONKS. The post was quickly deleted, causing STONKS' market cap to be halved. However, STONKS has gradually recovered under the community's management and has established a strong consensus, which is also an important reason for its relatively more resilient coin price compared to other tokens.
BRAIZIL (Down 99.7% from Peak)
Peak Price: $0.021 Current Price: $0.0005
On January 24, the X account of the former President of Brazil was hacked and used to post the Meme coin BRAIZIL representing Brazil. The original post was deleted in a short time, and the token price plummeted accordingly.
TIME (Down 97.8% from its all-time high)
All-time high: 0.13 Current price: 0.0003
On January 31, the official Twitter account of TIME magazine was hacked, and information about the TIME token was posted. After the tweet was deleted, the token price plummeted rapidly.
DAILY (Down 98% from its all-time high)
All-time high: 0.003 Current price: 0.00006
On February 2, the Official Twitter account of the UK's Daily Mail newspaper promoted the meme coin DAILY. After the tweet was deleted at the peak market cap, the token price crashed.
MALAYSIA (Down 99.56% from its all-time high)
All-time high: 0.003 Current price: 0.00001
On February 5, the X account of former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad was hacked, and multiple tweets promoting the meme token MALAYSIA were posted. According to Slowmist's monitoring, the creator of the CA was related to a historical malicious group.
Celebrity Token Promotion:
JAILSTOOL (Down 92.76% from its all-time high)
All-time high: 0.21 Current price: 0.015
On February 8, Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports in the US, participated in promoting the meme token JAILSTOOL. Barstool Sports started as a small sports newspaper that Dave distributed on the subway, and later developed into a multi-million dollar business empire. Dave is also a social media celebrity in the US, known for his sharp pizza reviews and crazy sports bets.
He has started getting into cryptocurrencies in recent years, often randomly buying tokens on Solana and sharing his trades on Twitter. On February 8, Dave bought $200 worth of JAILSTOOL. At first, people didn't pay much attention, but he found the token very interesting and told investors he wouldn't sell and would continue to increase his position. The price of JAILSTOOL skyrocketed due to his tweet, with the market cap soaring to $150 million in just 3 hours. Related reading: "$JAILSTOOL Recap: A Celebrity's Tweet, $150 Million Market Cap in 3 Hours"
LIBRA (Down 97.3% from its all-time high)
All-time high: 4.53 Current price: 0.12
On February 15, the President of Argentina posted a tweet promoting the meme coin LIBRA, whose market cap exceeded $4 billion at its peak. But after Milei deleted the tweet, the LIBRA market cap crashed, and the team behind it cashed out over $100 million. More than 20 LIBRA traders lost over $1 million, with the biggest loser losing over $5 million. As of now, the insider allegations surrounding the LIBRA issuance have not been fully unraveled. Related reading: "After the $100 Million Rug Pull, the Community Uncovered These Insider Details in 36 Hours"
Additionally, the famous American rapper Kanye West announced last week that he would launch his own official meme coin YEEZY, stating that "YEEZY is intended to create a true currency." But just yesterday, Kanye suddenly announced that he would temporarily withdraw from X, and the coin launch plan may be stalled.
Summary
The crypto frenzy of TRUMP ultimately ended in a tragic scenario of over 370,000 liquidations and $1 billion in losses. Overall, although celebrity token launches have once attracted a lot of market attention, their fleeting hype has also exposed the fragility of the market. If you can't run fast enough, you'll be harvested. When the celebrity aura fades, what's left is not only the steep rise and fall curves on the K-line chart, but also the ultimate interrogation of the decentralization ideal: if the crypto world becomes a puppet of power and traffic, has its promise to disrupt the traditional already become a hollow narrative? The answer may lie in the silence before the next bubble rises.
