Donald Trump says 'I don't know much about' the TRUMP memecoin

Quick Take

  • Trump’s token became the fastest-growing memecoin in history, rocketing to a market cap of $13 billion.

Speaking Tuesday afternoon to a group of reporters, President Donald Trump was asked about his official memecoin that debuted Friday night.

"I don't know much about it other than I launched it," Trump said. "I heard it was very successful. I haven't checked."

When a reporter said TRUMP has generated several billion dollars in the past few days, the president quipped, "several billion? That's peanuts for these guys," referring to SoftBank's Masayoshi Son, OpenAI's Sam Altman and Oracle's Larry Ellison, who were in the room with him.

(The Associated Press reported that Trump had talked up a joint venture between OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank looking to invest up to $500 billion in AI infrastructure. The new entity, Stargate, will aims to build data centers in Texas, which is also a hot location for bitcoin mining due to its cheap energy costs.)

Trump family memecoins

President Trump launched a Solana-based memecoin on Jan. 17 via posts on his social media accounts, three days before he took the oath of office. The TRUMP memecoin's market cap eclipsed $13 billion over the weekend, although it currently trades with a market cap of around $8 billion. 

The token crashed 50% Sunday afternoon on news that Trump's wife, First Lady Melania Trump, also launched her own memecoin. Supply of both tokens are thought to be largely owned by Trump insiders. 

Trump reportedly plans to issue an executive order to set cryptocurrency as a national policy priority and has tapped David Sacks to be his admin's crypto czar. On Tuesday, TD Cowen warned Trump’s memecoin could complicate bipartisan efforts to pass crypto market structure legislation, as investigations into its implications might increase partisan tensions.

“The unbelievable success of it so far will also likely fortify Trump’s interest in the industry since he personally benefits,” Alexander Blume, the CEO of Two Prime Digital Assets, previously told The Block. “On the flip side, for those interested in cryptocurrency reshaping the global financial structure, this move brings us more towards a crypto casino than true reform.”

Several exchanges and brokerages like Coinbase and Robinhood have listed the "official" Trump memecoin. 

TRUMP trades around $42, up 8.7% over the past 24 hours according to The Block's price data.


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© 2024 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

Jason is a U.S. news editor at The Block. He previously worked as a staff writer and later served as managing editor at Benzinga, a financial news and data company. He led Benzinga's daily markets coverage as well as the expansion of the outlet's cannabis, cryptocurrency and sports betting verticals. He earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Central Michigan University and resides in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. Follow him on X @JasonShubnell.

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