Melania Trump launches cryptocurrency meme coin after President-elect Trump launches his own
Incoming first lady Melania Trump launched a crypto token of her own on Sunday after President-elect Trump announced his crypto token, called $TRUMP coin, days before he returns to the Oval Office.
Melania Trump unveiled her cryptocurrency token, $MELANIA, on social media as the incoming president held a victory rally at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., on Sunday afternoon.
"The Official Melania Meme is live!" she posted on X. "You can buy $MELANIA now."
The token entered the market at just pennies, and by Sunday evening, was trading at over $10.
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The website associated with $MELANIA shows that 15% of the tokens will be available for public distribution.
But according to the Wall Street Journal, the $MELANIA token caused the $TRUMP coin to crash more than 45% before it regained some of its value.
Trump announced the launch of $TRUMP on Friday, and in less than 24 hours, the crypto went from just a few cents to $33.87, representing a staggering price gain of over 18,000%. Like most cryptocurrencies, the token shows volatility, though on Sunday evening it was trading at about $48, after peaking at around $76 earlier in the day.
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Trump announced the unveiling of the coin on Truth Social and X at 9:45 p.m., while industry bigwigs celebrated his return to office at the inaugural Crypto Ball in Washington, D.C.
FOX Business reached out to Trump’s transition team for comment, but did not hear back.
Trump is promising to be the most crypto-friendly president in history and has vowed to reverse the Biden administration's regulatory crackdown on the sector, which has resulted in many U.S. companies moving operations offshore.
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When news broke of Trump's cryptocurrency on Friday, many attendees of the Crypto Ball were skeptical, speculating that the president-elect’s accounts had been hacked. Donald Trump, Jr., who presumably knew about the announcement, was cordoned off in an exclusive VIP section. It’s unclear whether he spoke to anyone there about the token launch.
Both coins, which go by the trading tickers TRUMP and MELANIA, are known as "meme coin," a highly speculative kind of cryptocurrency that has no inherent utility and is often created based on a joke or parody, like $PEPE, a meme of a picture of a cartoon frog that has a market cap of over $7 billion.
Sophisticated investors are often wary of meme coins, not just because of their wild price swings, but their propensity for being associated with scammers looking to make a quick buck off exuberant investors.
Last month, social media influencer Haliey Welch, better known as the "Hawk Tuah Girl," was sued by investors when the price of her meme coin, $HAWK, crashed within hours of its introduction, prompting heavy investor losses.
FOX Business’ Eleanor Terrett contributed to this report.