A wave of cryptocurrency ventures linked to President Donald Trump has surged, coinciding with his inauguration for a second term. World Liberty Financial (WLF), a crypto project promoted by Trump, his sons, and newly-appointed Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, announced it had raised $1 billion in token sales on Monday, the day of Trump’s swearing-in, Al Jazeera reports.
Meanwhile, a new Trump meme coin, branded $TRUMP, experienced a meteoric rise, briefly surpassing a $10 billion market value.
The explosive growth of these crypto projects comes amid Trump’s promises to usher in a “golden age” for cryptocurrencies, a stark contrast to the regulatory scrutiny the industry faced under the previous Biden administration.
WLF, launched just two months prior to the US election, has already far exceeded initial goals, selling nearly 22 billion tokens on Monday. The project boasts a $75 million investment from Tron founder Justin Sun, who faced crypto-related fraud and securities violations charges under the Biden administration.
The $TRUMP meme coin, launched on Friday night at the first-ever Crypto Ball in Washington, D.C., as part of inauguration festivities, saw its value skyrocket from under $10 on Saturday morning to as high as $74.59 on Monday. It later retreated to around $42.20 by 2:45 pm EST (19:45 GMT), still boasting a market cap of approximately $8.5 billion, with a 24-hour trading volume near $40 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. The coin has raised ethical red flags, even among some in the crypto industry.
This coin’s launch significantly expands Trump’s cryptocurrency interests beyond WLF. The website for the coin indicates that four-fifths of its tokens are owned by CIC Digital, an affiliate of Trump’s business, and another entity called Fight, Fight, Fight. It emphasizes the coins are not an investment or security but are an expression of support for the ideals and beliefs embodied by the symbol “$TRUMP.”
Adding to the frenzy, former First Lady Melania Trump launched her own coin, $MELANIA, on Sunday, which quickly surpassed a $1 billion market capitalization.
The launch of WLF just two months before the election raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, and the meme coin launch also prompted criticism. The Trump Organization has stated that the President would hand over daily management of his various business holdings to his children when he entered the White House.
The overall excitement surrounding these meme coins appears to be contributing to a broader rally in cryptocurrency prices, fueled by investors’ growing hope that Trump will fulfill his promise to be a “crypto president” by easing regulations and promoting digital asset ownership. Several figures within Trump’s administration and circles have close ties to the crypto industry.
Bitcoin hit $104,031 on inauguration day, up almost 7 percent so far this month. The Trump and Melania coins were created on the Solana blockchain, which CoinMarketCap ranks as the third largest blockchain network. The price of Solana’s own coin also surged, reaching an all-time high of $294.33 on Sunday.
Forbes estimates Trump’s net worth to be $6.7 billion, a figure that does not include the value of the $TRUMP coin or his earnings from WLF. The prospect of looser crypto regulations has been met with enthusiasm by the industry, accelerating a rally in Bitcoin following Trump’s election victory in November.
