Investing.com — Trump’s new cryptocurrency surged prior to his inauguration as the 47th president of the United States, giving it a market value of almost $11 billion.
The crypto industry has been buoyed since Trump’s election victory in November, with its proponents hoping he will help usher in a new era of digital asset adoption. Trump, who previously called Bitcoin “a scam”, has pledged that America would be “the crypto capital” of the world once he returned to office.
Major crypto exchanges including Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) and Binance have said they plan to list Trump’s memecoin token.
Some 200 million of the digital tokens have been issued and another 800 million will be released in the next three years, the coin’s website said, adding that the tokens are meant as expressions of support instead of investment opportunities. The website noted that it is “not political” and “has nothing to do” with any political campaign, office, or governmental agency.
“My NEW Official Trump Meme is HERE! It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING!” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
The memecoin, $Trump, which started selling for $10 each, traded as high as around $70 on Sunday. It pared back some of these gains after the launch of incoming US First Lady Melania Trump’s coin, $Melania.
By 06:29 ET (11:29 GMT), $Trump was trading at $54.25, giving it market value of about $10.8 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin notched a fresh record high on Monday, extending a recent advance in the price of the world’s most well-known cryptocurrency since Trump’s win. Bitcoin, which began last year trading at $43,000, was exchanging hands at $108,216.50 at 06:19 ET.
