(Bloomberg) — A digital token debuted by President-elect Donald Trump has rattled the cryptocurrency market, attracting billions of dollars of trading volume while stoking concerns about conflicts of interest.
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Trading under the “Trump” ticker on the Solana blockchain, the token’s market value surged to $15 billion over the weekend, data from CoinMarketCap show, after the Republican touted it on his social media accounts on Friday.
The digital asset’s market capitalization then briefly slid below $8 billion on Sunday in New York after Trump’s wife Melania also unveiled a coin, drawing traders who seek to capitalize on shifting speculative demand for memes.
Meanwhile, the wider crypto market struggled over the weekend, including a dip in the largest token, Bitcoin, and a shaper retreat for second-ranked Ether. SOL, the cryptoasset associated with the Solana digital ledger hosting the Trump memecoins, bucked the trend and posted a rally.
Speculative Flows
The “size of the capital flowing” to the Trump token left most other coins trading “poorly” outside of SOL and some related assets, said Sydney-based Richard Galvin, co-founder of hedge fund DACM.
The website for the president-elect’s token describes it as the “the only official Trump meme.” The project’s art features an illustration of the incoming US president with his fist in the air — a reference to his response in the aftermath of an attempt on his life during a campaign rally last year.
The small print on the website states the president-elect’s token isn’t intended to be an “investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any type.” Still, crypto-minded Trump fans immediately started buying. Major exchanges like Coinbase Global Inc. and Binance Holdings Ltd. said during the weekend they intended to list the token on their platforms.
The website for Melania’s project also says that the token isn’t supposed to be an investment opportunity or security, adding that “Melania memes are digital collectibles intended to function as an expression of support for and engagement with the values embodied by the symbol MELANIA.”
Trump’s Embrace
Trump made explicit overtures to the crypto industry in the months before and after his election. Bloomberg News has previously reported that he’s considering an executive order designating the asset class a “national priority.”
