Data & Insights: $TRUMP Memecoin’s Impact on Blockchain Metrics & RWA Growth

President Pump

• Crypto-adjacent apps experienced a significant jump in their respective app store rankings following the launch of US President Donald Trump’s official memecoin, $TRUMP
  • The $TRUMP memecoin was launched on the Solana blockchain last Friday night, following posts from Trump’s official accounts on X (formerly Twitter) and Truth Social.
  • The coin quickly reached a valuation of $500 million shortly after launch, then skyrocketed to $75 billion in under 36 hours, with nearly $4 billion in volume traded in its main Meteora liquidity pool.
  • As a spillover effect of this launch, mainly from the thought process that the President of the United States chose Solana as his preferred blockchain network to launch his coin on, the price of $SOL also reached a new all-time high after increasing by over 23% at its peak in the same day.
  • The $TRUMP launch has put Solana in the spotlight, with this kind of attention possibly paving the way for more big names or organizations to pick Solana for similar initiatives.
• The launch of an official memecoin tied to the US President himself brought a tsunami of attention into the industry, with mass inflows of people rushing to participate.
  • This was most evident in app store rankings of crypto-related apps, which all saw significant jumps in the 24 hours following $TRUMP’s launch.
  • Phantom, the largest crypto wallet for Solana, was ranked 357th on the US app store on Friday, prior to the $TRUMP launch. Fast forward just 3 days later and Phantom has climbed to 35th overall in the US app store.
  • Moonshot experienced a similar trajectory, as it currently ranks #1 in the finance category of the US app store. For reference, it was ranked 266th just 3 days ago.
• While Phantom and Moonshot were immediate winners from the hype and attention surrounding $TRUMP, multiple crypto-adjacent apps have also been riding the wave of increased crypto interest in the past week.
  • Coinbase ranked 209th overall in the US app store last Sunday. Fast forward a week later and it currently ranks #32 overall, highlighting the increased crypto mindshare in recent weeks.
• Meanwhile, in the finance sector of the US app store, from January 14th to the time of writing:
  • Kraken has climbed from #315 to #97
  • Binance.US climbed from #108 to #47 
  • Uniswap climbed from #49 to #22
  • Coinbase wallet from #34 to #10

Solana DeFi(ing) Expectations 

• Off the back of the Trump memecoin, Solana's total value locked (TVL) has reached $9.77 billion, marking a major expansion from $1.4 billion a year ago. TVL increased approximately 600% over the twelve-month period. 
  • Raydium, Solana's leading DEX, accounts for $2.59 billion of the total TVL, highlighting the growing demand for decentralized trading infrastructure on the network. 
  • While substantial, Solana's TVL remains proportionally smaller compared to Ethereum's $68 billion, indicating potential room for further growth in the ecosystem.
• The TVL growth coincides with robust network activity metrics. 
  • The network processes approximately 300 million transactions daily, while active addresses have surpassed 4 million, reflecting increased user engagement. 
• Increased attention from high-profile projects and figures has been a significant driver of activity on the chain. 
  • President Trump chose to launch his memecoin on Solana on the 17th, shocking novice and experienced traders alike. 
  • The $TRUMP token has helped draw in more than $11 billion in volume on Solana since its launch. At the time of writing, Meteora has a 24-hour swap volume of 5.6 billion with more than 4 billion attributed to $TRUMP token pairs. 
  • Additionally, established projects like Pudgy Penguins launching their token $PENGU on Solana, combined with the network's growing reputation for hosting successful memecoin launches throughout 2024, have contributed to the ecosystem's growth.
• The sustained growth in TVL points to Solana's maturing DeFi ecosystem. Projects are increasingly choosing Solana for new launches, suggesting growing confidence in the network's infrastructure. 
  • While still a ways from challenging Ethereum, the growth in Solana TVL indicates potential opportunities for further DeFi development and adoption. 

Real-World-Ascending

• Total value locked across real-world-asset (RWA) protocols has reached $7.3 billion, marking a more than 200% increase from a year ago, with government securities protocols capturing an expanding share of the market. 
  • Usual Protocol and Hashnote USYC lead the sector with approximately $1.48 billion TVL each. 
  • Hashnote is a regulated digital asset management platform offering innovative investment strategies with transparency, while Usual Protocol is a decentralized stablecoin issuer that tokenizes real-world assets and redistributes value to users through governance tokens.
• The composition of RWA TVL has shifted significantly toward government securities, which now represent approximately two-thirds of total RWA TVL, up from 36% a year ago. 
  • This shift suggests increasing confidence in regulated, government-backed digital assets and indicates a maturing market as protocols focus on traditional financial instruments.
• Market dynamics are being influenced by potential policy developments in the US with President-elect Trump's reported plans to issue an executive order making crypto a "national policy priority" post-inauguration.
  • There have also been proposals to create crypto advisory councils, which could provide the industry with greater representation in policy discussions. 
  • These developments may further legitimize RWA protocols, particularly those dealing with government securities.
• The sector's growth trajectory warrants attention as the substantial increase in TVL suggests growing institutional acceptance of blockchain-based financial instruments. 
  • With so much focus on government securities, it may indicate a preference for lower-risk, regulated assets in the current market. 

Everyone's Trading on Solana

• Unsurprisingly, all the buzz around $TRUMP has been propelling decentralized exchange usage on Solana. 
  • Solana's DEX volume ratio compared to Ethereum has reached an unprecedented 268% in January, marking a dramatic shift from 53% a year ago with Solana processing $122 billion in volume while Ethereum recorded $45 billion. 
  • Raydium leads the ecosystem with $32 billion in weekly volume, followed by Orca at $17 billion. 
  • For comparison, Uniswap on Ethereum processed $20 billion during the same period. 
• The massive influx of traders benefitted greatly from UX improvements by Solana DEXs.
  • Improved transaction processing and reduced network downtime, enhanced DEX interfaces focusing on user experience, integration of Jupiter aggregator providing optimized trading routes, and growing institutional infrastructure support have all contributed to the network's momentum.
• The volume disparity has sparked discussions about Ethereum's market position with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin indicating upcoming changes for the Ethereum Foundation, with proposed improvements focusing on community support and communication. 
  • This also comes as another Ethereum co-founder, Joseph Lubin, proposed personnel changes within the Foundation's leadership team.
• Several factors contribute to this evolving landscape, including Solana's lower transaction costs attracting retail traders, increased confidence in network stability, and migration of high-profile projects to the Solana ecosystem. 
  • However many are still hopeful that Ethereums head start on establishing a developer community and institutional integaion may give the network the fuel it needs to push forward.

A Lot of Yapping Going On

• Tweet volumes on X of the keywords “Bitcoin” and “Ethereum” have increased by 100% and 297% this past week compared to the week prior.
  • During the second week of January 2025, there were 247K recorded mentions of “Bitcoin” on X. During the third week of January 2025, this figure had increased to 495K mentions.
  • Meanwhile, mentions of “Ethereum" grew from 73.6K tweets to 293K tweets in the same time period.
• The uptick in social activity reflects growing participation from retail audiences, as many casual users and influencers engage in crypto discussions.
  • This could be a leading indicator of increased retail inflows into the market, mirroring trends observed during prior bullish cycles.
  • This significant increase in activity can likely be attributed to a combination of factors, with the 2 most likely being:
  • Renewed market interest, particularly with Bitcoin testing new price highs not seen since mid-December 2024.
    Broader interest in crypto as a pro-crypto US administration is set to begin.