A cryptocurrency allegedly linked to President-elect Donald Trump soared to an $8 billion market capitalisation within three hours of its debut on Solana, igniting a mix of enthusiasm and scepticism in the crypto community.
The token, named Official Trump ($TRUMP), was announced Friday on Trump’s Truth Social account, which directed users to the website GetTrumpMemes to acquire it. A similar announcement later appeared on X (formerly Twitter), claiming the token as the official $TRUMP meme coin.
Blockchain activity showed $TRUMP’s value surging by over 300% in the first three minutes of trading, with volumes approaching $1 billion, according to GeckoTerminal data. By press time, the token was trading at $8.5.
However, concerns over the coin’s authenticity arose quickly. Cygaar, a blockchain engineer, pointed out that the token’s infrastructure mirrors that of Trump’s earlier NFT project. “Same Cloudflare setup, same deployment with Heroku, same SSL certificate issuer,” he said, suggesting the same team could be behind both ventures.
Adding to the mystery, Trump’s Truth Social account posted an unrelated announcement shortly after, appointing Peggy Schwinn as the new US Deputy Secretary of Education. Speculation of a potential hack grew, with cybersecurity experts urging caution.
Despite the questions, the token has been verified and listed on Jupiter Exchange, according to Slorg, a member of the platform’s Core Working Group. “We have approved it to the Jupiter strictlist,” he said, emphasising the need for user awareness.
Inspired by Trump’s “Fight, Fight, Fight” rallying cry during a 2024 campaign event, the $TRUMP token launched with a supply of 1 billion units, of which 200 million were made available immediately. The remaining supply is locked up, to be released over three years.
The debate surrounding $TRUMP highlights the volatile intersection of politics and cryptocurrency, with Trump’s name consistently attracting attention in blockchain markets. Neither Trump’s campaign nor his representatives have responded to requests for comment on the token’s legitimacy.
The project has already drawn comparisons to Trump’s NFT collection, which gained significant traction last year. Analysts caution investors to remain vigilant amid the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the token’s origins.
