20 January 2025 , 19:46
580
0
Incoming first lady Melania Trump has launched her own cryptocurrency on the eve of her husband’s inauguration, making billions in a matter of minutes.
‘The Official Melania Meme is live! You can buy $MELANIA now,’ she posted on X on Sunday night, attracting nearly 20,000 investors within the first hour.
It comes a day after Donald Trump launched his own $TRUMP cryptocoin, which currently has a total market valuation of about $12bn (£9.8bn).
The $MELANIA coin meanwhile, currently stands at around $1.7bn.
Both Melania and Trump have launched crytocurrencies in recent days (Picture: AFP)
On its official website, the cryptocoin is described as a way to ‘show support for and engagement with the values embodied by Melania’.
Disclaimers on the websites of both the $Trump and $Melania coins said they were ‘not intended to be, or the subject of’ an investment opportunity.
But the launch of the Melania coin caused the Trump coin to immediately crash in value, wiping billions off its market price. It has since recovered some of the losses.
Trump had previously labelled crypto a ‘scam’ but appeared to change his mind during the 2024 election campaign, becoming the first presidential candidate to accept cryptocurrency donations.
Both Trump and his three sons have recently been promoting World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture set up by longtime business partners of the Trump organisation. The group also tried unsuccessfully to buy Bakkt, a cryptocurrency trading venue.
Following his electoral victory, bitcoin surged to a record high and is currently trading at $140,000, according to crypto trading platform Coinbase.
On Saturday, Eric Trump described the Trump coin as ‘the hottest digital meme on Earth’ and said World Liberty was ‘just getting started’.
The incoming Trump administration has bet heavily on crypto (Picture: Shutterstock)
However, ethics watchdogs have raised concerns about both the Trump and Melania coins after it was revealed 80% and 90% of the respective tokens were being held in a single digital wallet, leaving only a small number available for public investors and liquidity.
Anthony Scaramucci, Trump’s former communications director-turned-critic, was quick to criticise the launch. He wrote on X: ‘The Trump memecoin stuff is bad for the [crypto] industry. Don’t delude yourself.’
Memecoins represent a risky and highly volatile aspect of the crypto market. Often launched as jokes with no inherent value, their prices can surge if enough investors jump on board, but a lack of safeguarding measures means they are ripe for artificial inflation by financial scammers running ‘pump and dump’ schemes.
Jonathan Bixby, a crypto entrepreneur, told the FT that Trump’s memecoin was likely to be ‘the opening gun in what is called “the banana zone”’, a crypto trading term in which prices can suddenly surge.
The Melania website claims the coin is ‘not to be used as an investment opportunity’
‘It gives legitimacy to these assets and it invites every celebrity to come back in and start promoting,’ he said. ‘These next couple of months are going to be wild.’
The Trump family’s sudden memecoin burst comes after David Sacks, the Trump administration’s recently-appointed crypto and AI czar, declared a new age of crypto innovation after the Republican candidate’s electoral win.
Speaking at a ‘Crypo-ball’ for high value investors on Friday, Sacks said ‘The reign of terror against crypto is over, and the beginning of innovation in America for crypto has just begun.’
Under Joe Biden’s administration, financial regulators launched a crackdown on crypto exchanges, citing concerns over fraud and money laundering.