Cryptocurrency markets were in for a surprise on January 18 when the “Official Trump” (TRUMP) meme coin, backed by President-elect Donald Trump, was launched without prior notice. The announcement was made through Mr. Trump's social media accounts, directing users to purchase Solana tokens through designated centralized intermediaries and providing contract addresses.
The meme coin launch sparked a rally in Solana’s (SOL) native token, pushing it to an all-time high of $270. The surge has led traders to question whether SOL's current market cap of $120 billion is sustainable and the implications for Solana's main competitor, Ethereum (ETH). Ethereum was considered a favorite of President Trump, as it was allocated within World Liberty Financial, a project with close ties to President Trump, but the decision to launch Official Trump on the Solana Network frowned.
Ether/USD (left) vs. SOL/USD (right). Source: TradingView / Cointelegraph
President Trump's official announcement timing emphasizes 'America first'
The event coincided with the Crypto Ball in honor of Trump, a high-profile event that brought together industry leaders such as MicroStrategy's Michael Saylor, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, and the Winklevoss twins. That made it even more interesting. , David Sachs, President Trump's Cryptocurrency and Artificial Intelligence Advisor The sold-out event was held just a few blocks from the White House in Washington, DC.
Despite the competition in the meme coin market, the “Official Trump” (TRUMP) token quickly reached a market capitalization of $6.9 billion. It was soon listed on major exchanges such as Bybit, Bitget, and KuCoin. Memecoin started with 200 million tokens in circulation and a total supply of up to 1 billion, with 80% allocated to issuers.
The allocation and distribution of TRUMP tokens has been proposed. Source: GetTrumpMemes
Publisher reportedly Deposited 44.4 million TRUMP tokens into a one-sided liquidity pool. This means that it cannot be combined directly with assets like stablecoins. Decentralized exchange Meteora (DEX) was chosen to manage the automated market making (AMM) process. in line Jupiter DEX. The two largest liquidity pools were TRUMP-USDC with a total value lock (TVL) of $483 million and TRUMP-SOL with $67 million.
Currently trading at $24.60, the “Official Trump” (TRUMP) token ranks as the 28th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, with a combined trading volume of 7 billion on decentralized and centralized exchanges. It's more than a dollar. For comparison, TRUMP's trading volume exceeded that of Dogecoin (DOGE), the oldest meme coin and sector leader with a market capitalization of $58 billion. As a result, Solana's decentralized platforms such as Meteora and Raydium benefited greatly from the TRUMP token launch.
Trump’s official meme coin solidifies Solana’s dominance in crypto and DeFi
The overall meme coin market was negatively impacted as traders shifted their attention to the President-elect's token. More than 200,000 users directly purchased “Official Trump” (TRUMP) through the official app “Moonshot”, with trading volume reaching nearly $400 million. In contrast, Dogecoin is down 6%, Shiba Inu (SHIB) is down 7.5%, PEPE is down 10.5%, and Dogwifat (WIF) is down 8%.
Related: Crypto industry skeptical of meme coins promoted on President Trump's social media
For Ether holders, this event posed a double challenge. First, it strengthens Solana's position as the go-to ecosystem for token issuance. Second, expectations that the Trump administration might support Ethereum have waned, despite President Trump's prior involvement in the Ethereum-based World Liberty Finance project.
It remains unclear whether the “Official Trump” (TRUMP) token will be able to maintain its price above $20. Furthermore, for SOL's price to break above $300, Solana Network would need to significantly increase its market share in terms of deposits and institutional adoption. This growth is also dependent on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's approval of the Solana Spot Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), which remains a key catalyst for future returns.
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