Incoming First Lady Melania Trump on Sunday announced the launch of a meme coin that trades on the Solana blockchain platform, causing a sharp dip in the price of a similar meme coin launched two days ago by her husband—President-elect Donald Trump—prompting concerns from crypto industry executives who worry that meme coins could harm the market.
Incoming First Lady Melania Trump launched her meme coin on Sunday.
The incoming first lady announced the launch of the “Official Melania Meme” or $MELANIA token on Sunday afternoon and shared a link to a website to purchase the coins.
Early on Monday morning, the $MELANIA token was trading at around $11.22 with a market cap of $2.15 billion.
According to CoinMarketCap’s tracker, $MELANIA’s market cap makes it one of the top 60 most valuable cryptocurrencies in the world.
The token is being distributed on the Solana blockchain platform by MKT World, a Florida company incorporated by Melania Trump in 2021.
Details about the coin are limited but the website notes that the incoming first lady’s team has reserved 35% of the token’s supply—which will remain locked for the first 30 days.
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The meme coin purchase link shared by Melania Trump includes a disclaimer stating that the tokens are “digital collectibles intended to function as an expression of support for and engagement with the values embodied by the symbol MELANIA. and the associated artwork.” The note then adds that the meme coins are not intended to be “an investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any type.”
Shortly after the meme coin's launch, the price of the OFFICIAL TRUMP token or $TRUMP—the meme coin launched by her husband on Friday—tanked nearly 40% to around $35. The president-elect launched the $TRUMP on Friday and its market cap peaked at around $15 billion on Sunday but the volatile asset’s market cap dropped below $8 billion after MELANIA’s launch. However, the cryptocurrency was able to pare back its losses early on Monday after investment app Robinhood announced that the token was “now available to trade” on its platform. As of early Monday morning, the price of $TRUMP stands at $53.12 which equates to a market cap of $10.62 billion. This makes $TRUMP the 18th most valuable crypto token by market cap.
450,653. That is the total number of crypto wallets which hold $MELANIA as of Monday morning, according to the Solscan tracker.
Donald Trump Launches $TRUMP Meme Coin—Token Hits $9 Billion Market Cap (Forbes)