Shortly before the President-Elect again became the President on January 20, the Trump family on a controversial meme coin offensive with the OFFICIAL TRUMP (TRUMP) and Official Melania Meme (MELANIA) cryptocurrencies drew the bulk of the attention.
As could be expected, the Donald Trump-themed digital asset – either a cynical cash grab or a blockchain equivalent of a commemorative coin or stamp – proved to have the most staying power and attracted the most investor interest.
In fact, by press time on January 23, TRUMP enjoyed a total spot volume of some $38 billion – a daily average of about $7.6 billion – per the data we retrieved from CryptoQuant.
The world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, Binance, took the lion’s share of the trading at approximately $16 billion, and OKX came in second at about $7 billion.
The Trump meme coin sees rapid growth, shows unexpected staying power
Along with massive volume, OFFICIAL TRUMP enjoyed a remarkable rise almost immediately upon launch. Specifically, the token went from a market capitalization of $0 to $15 billion in less than 24 hours.
The meme coin’s price likewise surged from the initial $7 to highs at about $75 within a handful of hours and despite the buzz of the inauguration being over and leading to a significant drop, it is still trading at $36.86 for a total valuation of $7.24 billion.
Such a situation means that traders who purchased early are still, at least at press time, in the green, while those who got their hands on TRUMP near the initial price have seen their ‘commemorative’ asset appreciate 463.54%.
MELANIA, on the other hand, despite drawing much attention, generating speculation, and seeing its valuation rocket from $0 to highs near $2.14 billion, didn’t have a fraction of TRUMP’s staying power. The First Lady-themed cryptocurrency is, with a press time valuation of $471.77 million, down 65.70% in the all-time price chart.