Donald Trump’s meme coin took a nosedive after his wife, Melania, decided to hop on the crypto bandwagon with her own token. On Sunday (Jan. 19), the price of the $Trump coin more than halved before slowly bouncing back.
Melania announced her new crypto coin on X, writing: “The Official Melania Meme is live! You can buy $MELANIA now.”
The Official Melania Meme is live!
You can buy $MELANIA now. https://t.co/8FXvlMBhVf
FUAfBo2jgks6gB4Z4LfZkqSZgzNucisEHqnNebaRxM1P pic.twitter.com/t2vYiahRn6
— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) January 19, 2025
The coin’s official website reveals that $MELANIA is a crypto asset powered by the Solana blockchain. However, just like its counterpart $Trump, disclaimers on both sites reiterate that the tokens are not designed to be investment opportunities or classified as securities. According to the site, the team are setting aside 35% of the supply for themselves, but it’ll all unlock in 13 months.
Currently, according to CoinMarketCap, $Trump has a market valuation of around $12 billion (£9.8 billion), while $Melania’s coin is valued at a still-impressive $1.7 billion.
Trump coin crash jars crypto enthusiasts
Following the temporary crash of Trump’s own coin, The Kobeissi Letter analysts posted an image of the dramatic drop, writing: “Less than 48 hours ago, Donald Trump launched $trump which just erased $7.5bn in market cap in 10 minutes. In the minutes around the launch of Melania Trump’s token, we saw massive sell orders in $trump.
“This is insane.”
BREAKING: Donald Trump’s memecoin, $TRUMP, crashes over -40% as Melania Trump launches her own memecoin.
This is beyond insane. pic.twitter.com/6Oj2GGqjqF
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) January 19, 2025
The coin reportedly erased over $5 billion in market cap in a matter of seconds.
While crypto supporters have been enthusiastic about the $Trump coin, some users have criticized the release of another family member’s coin.
Trump just lost a huge chunk of my support. This is NOT a good look. It's not serious at all. What's next? $Junior, $Eric, $Kai and what not?
— Nicholas Jointson (@NickJointson) January 19, 2025
Dude we just wanted sensible crypto regulation.
Instead we got this
— FrugalBC (@BC_Kowalski) January 19, 2025
One user wrote on X: “Trump just lost a huge chunk of my support. This is NOT a good look. It’s not serious at all. What’s next? $Junior, $Eric, $Kai and what not?”
Another person added: “Dude we just wanted sensible crypto regulation. Instead we got this.”
On the campaign trail, Trump promised to shake up the crypto world by creating a strategic Bitcoin stockpile and appointing financial regulators with a more crypto-friendly outlook.
That fueled hopes he’d roll back some of the stricter regulations on the industry.
After his election victory, Bitcoin skyrocketed to an all-time high and is now trading at around $107,000, according to Coinbase.
Featured image: Grok