Donald Trump launches an “official” Trump meme coin with the TRUMP ticker, but investors remain cautious despite the short-term success.
President-elect Donald Trump launched the Solana-based token three days before his inauguration as the 47th President of the United States. Despite its explosive rise in value, skepticism surrounds the project, with investors questioning its authenticity.
The meteoric rise of TRUMP
Three hours after its launch, TRUMP’s market capitalization soared to $9 billion. The token’s price surged more than 4,800%, trading at $9 from an opening price of $0.1824, according to Dexscreener. More than 49,800 buyers joined the frenzy, surpassing the nearly 12,500 sellers. Cash also jumped, reaching $308.7 million.
Notably, SpotOnChain revealed the token initially received SOL funding from Gate.io and Binance. However, the blockchain analytics firm questioned why a US-based project was avoiding US exchanges like Coinbase.
TRUMP allocation raises concerns
The allocation of TRUMP tokens has raised red flags. Conor Grogan, head of Coinbase, pointed out that 80% of the token supply is locked in a multisignature wallet. That’s $3 billion, controlled by the creator, who also added $40 million in liquidity.
Trump Memecoin Creator Added $40 Million in One-Sided Liquidity and Deposited 80% of the Supply in a Multisig pic.twitter.com/oKxOtiF50D
-Conor (@jconorgrogan) January 18, 2025
The official “GetTrumpMemes” website describes the token distribution plan. According to the platform, 200 million tokens are in circulation on the first day, and it is planned to increase this figure to 1 billion over three years.
However, 80% of the circulating supply is allocated to Fight Fight Fight LLC and CIC Digital LLC, both linked to The Trump Organization. Meanwhile, public investors and cash only share 20% of the supply equally.
A possible hack?
Skepticism about the legitimacy of the token has become widespread in the crypto community. Asset made the announcement on his official Truth Social and Twitter accounts.
My NEW official Trump meme is HERE! It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING! Join my very special Trump community. GET YOUR $ASSET NOW. Go to https://t.co/GX3ZxT5xyq – Have fun! pic.twitter.com/flIKYyfBrC
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2025
However, concerns about a possible hack or social engineering project have surfaced. Despite these emerging concerns, Polymarket data indicates only a 10% chance that its accounts were compromised.
Trump just launched a memecoin, $ASSET.
There is only a 10% chance that it was hacked. pic.twitter.com/rqvLsHLZBD
– Polymarché (@Polymarché) January 18, 2025
Blockchain data reveals token owner’s wallet received funds from Gate.io two days Before the launch and Binance ten days earlier.
Additionally, the concentration of ownership of the token among a few wallets raises concerns about manipulation. The top five holders hold more than 90% of the supply, making it vulnerable to sudden price swings if any of these addresses sell their holdings.
It is worth mentioning that this would not mark Trump’s first foray into crypto. During his 2024 campaign, he launched World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a project with the public support of his family. Unlike $TRUMP, WLFI was not a meme coin and its intentions were more transparent.
Nonetheless, the token has so far reached a market cap of $10 billion and continued to trade for 3 hours without any official statement from Trump or his team to disassociate the president-elect. This boosted investor confidence that the token could indeed be official. However, as of press time, this remains uncertain.
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