Just hours before the U.S. President-elect returned to the White House, Bitcoin reached a record high, while Donald Trump's newly created cryptocurrency surged to nearly $11 billion in market value on Monday, attracting billions of dollars in trading volume.
Trump's meme coin, also known as $TRUMP, was launched on Friday and by 12:30 GMT on Monday, it was trading at $52.71, with a market capitalization of approximately $10.75 billion. CoinMarketCap, data shows that TRUMP is now the 18th largest cryptocurrency. The coin increased from less than $10 early on Saturday morning to as much as $74.59 on Sunday, with $52.5 billion in 24-hour trading volume.
Trump expanded his cryptocurrency interests, which already include World Liberty Financial, on Friday by launching a digital token with branding that included an image from his July assassination attempt. According to the token's website, CIC Digital LLC, an affiliate of Trump's company The Trump Organization, and another company called Fight Fight Fight LLC own 80% of the total number of tokens.
Justin D'Anethan, a Hong Kong-based independent crypto analyst, stated, "The introduction of the official Trump token opens up a Pandora's box of ethical and regulatory questions, even though it's easy to brush this off as just another Trump spectacle."
According to D'Anethan, the coin "blurs the lines between governance, profit, and influence," even though it symbolized the integration of the decentralized finance (DeFi) space into politics.
"Should public figures have this kind of influence in speculative markets, particularly those with such political clout? "Regulators are unlikely to overlook that question," he stated.
On messaging app X, Peter Schiff, chief economist and global strategist at Euro Pacific Asset Management, cited the surge in $TRUMP's value and referred to it as the new digital gold.
Trump has vowed to be a "crypto president" and is anticipated to sign executive orders that will lower regulatory barriers to cryptocurrency and encourage the broad use of digital assets.
On Monday, he is scheduled to take over as president at noon ET (17:00 GMT).
Following Trump's election victory in November, the industry has greeted the possibility of loosened regulations surrounding crypto policy with fanfare, which has fueled a surge in Bitcoin prices.
Early European trading saw Bitcoin reach its highest point ever, $109,071.86, before reversing course and trading at about $107,600. This month, the biggest cryptocurrency in the world has increased by over 10%.
Melania Trump joins the crypto race
On Sunday, Melania Trump also introduced her own cryptocurrency, which at 12:30 GMT was valued at approximately $9.6 and had a market capitalization of $1.85 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.