Melania Trump launched a meme coin on the eve of her husband’s inauguration — causing his own new cryptocurrency to briefly tank amid a buying frenzy.

The incoming first lady dropped news of the cryptocurrency — “$MELANIA” — on Sunday night — just days after her husband, President-elect Donald Trump, revealed his own newly created $TRUMP coin.

“The Official Melania Meme is live! You can buy $MELANIA now,” she said in a post on X.


Melania Trump launched her own meme coin on the eve of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration.
Melania Trump launched her own meme coin on the eve of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. melaniameme.com

The coin was trading at about $12.03, with a market cap of $1.9 billion, early Monday, according to CoinMarketCap.

Soon after the Melania token launched, the president-elect’s own coin briefly crashed as much as 40%, analysts at The Kobeissi Letter reported.

“Melania memes 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, and are not intended to be, or to be the subject of, an investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any type,” according to its website.

Meanwhile, Trump’s cryptocurrency, which sparked a buying frenzy that saw the token skyrocket more than 300% within its first few hours, soared back Monday to nearly $12 billion in market value — drawing in billions in trading volume just hours ahead of his Inauguration Day festivities getting underway.

Trump’s meme coin surged to $58.56 early Monday, giving it a market capitalization of about $11.7 billion, according to CoinMarketCap, which ranked it as the 18th biggest cryptocurrency. Its 24-hour trading volume reached $52.5 billion.

The latest venture from the Trumps is the latest in a series of merchandise released by the Trump Organization in recent months, which has also been peddling Trump-branded sneakers, fragrances, Bibles and digital trading cards.

With Post wires



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CNN
 — 

The incoming first couple have launched a pair of meme coins in the leadup to president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Melania Trump launched her cryptocurrency $MELANIA in a social media post Sunday, sending her husband’s cryptocurrency $TRUMP, announced two days earlier, plummeting.

“The Official Melania Meme is live! You can buy $MELANIA now. https://melaniameme.com,” the future first lady wrote on X Sunday.”

Meme coins are a type of highly volatile cryptocurrency inspired by popular internet or cultural trends. They carry no intrinsic value but can soar, or plummet, in price.

“My NEW Official Trump Meme is HERE!” Trump wrote on X Friday. “It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING! Join my very special Trump Community. GET YOUR $TRUMP NOW. Go to http://gettrumpmemes.com — Have Fun!”

Both coins are trading on the Solana blockchain. Trump’s meme coin skyrocketed over the weekend and was trading at more than $70 by Sunday afternoon, according to CoinGecko.

However, the president-elect’s coin nosedived to $40 after Melania revealed her own coin. It has since recovered some of those losses and was trading around $60 early Monday. $MELANIA was trading just over $12 early Monday, according to CoinGecko.

$TRUMP is the first cryptocurrency endorsed by the incoming president, who once trashed bitcoin as “based on thin air.”

In July 2024, Trump addressed crypto’s largest convention and has since appointed Howard Lutnick, who supports the cryptocurrency company Tether, to run the US Commerce Department. Lutnick is among other crypto enthusiasts appointed to Trump’s next administration.

The $TRUMP logo seen on a smartphone on January 19, 2024.

The Trump coin’s market capitalization, which is based on the 200 million coins circulating, is capped at $13 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. The meme coin’s website said there will be 1 billion Trump coins over the next three years.

Both $MELANIA and $TRUMP’s websites contain disclaimers saying the coins are “intended to function as a support for, and engagement with” the values of their respective brands and “are not intended to be, or to be the subject of, an investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any type.”

The website says the meme coin is not politically affiliated. But 80% of the coin’s supply is held by Trump Organization-affiliate CIC Digital and Fight Fight Fight LLC, which are both subject to a three-year unlocking schedule – so they cannot sell all of their holdings at once.

The $TRUMP coin’s website says it is “the only official Trump meme.”

“Now, you can get your piece of history. This Trump Meme celebrates a leader who doesn’t back down, no matter the odds,” the website reads.



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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 or a security.

According to the CoinMarketCap website, $Trump has a total market valuation of about $12bn (£9.8bn), while $Melania’s stands at around $1.7bn.

Trump had previously called crypto a “scam” but during the 2024 election campaign became the first presidential candidate to accept digital assets as donations.

On the campaign trail, Trump also said he would create a strategic bitcoin stockpile and appoint financial regulators that take a more positive stance towards digital assets.

That spurred expectations that he would strip back regulations on the crypto industry.

In the wake of Trump’s victory, bitcoin jumped to a record high and is currently trading at around $107,000, according to crypto trading platform Coinbase.

On Friday, the incoming artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto tsar David Sacks held a “Crypto Ball” in Washington, DC.

Other cryptocurrencies, including dogecoin – which has been promoted by high-profile Trump supporter Elon Musk – have also risen sharply this year.

Under President Joe Biden, regulators cited concerns about fraud and money laundering as they cracked down on crypto companies by suing exchanges.



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