Trump’s Meme Coin Falls After Shooting Star Performance
The Official Trump meme coin reached an all-time high of $75.35 on Jan. 19, 2025, only two days since the launch. The increase has coincided with the second term of U.S. President Donald Trump. The hype, however, was short-lived. On Feb. 1, TRUMP changes hands for only $19.38—a full 74% decline from the peak.
The full market capitalization of the coin, despite the collapse, stands at about US$2 billion. However, the tokens are supposedly 80% held by Trump Organization affiliates.
Scaramucci Calls Out ‘Pump and Dump’
SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci, once an ally but now a sharp critic of the former president Trump, rebuked the President for inflating the value of the coin.
“President Trump posted on Truth Social last night in an attempt to ‘pump’ his $TRUMP memecoin (yes, that’s a real sentence that many have normalized),” Scaramucci wrote on X. “The result has been an acceleration of the ‘dump’, now down 70% from its peak. The jig is up”.
Via his company Trump Media & Technology Group, Trump has repeatedly used the platform, Truth Social, to hawk digital assets such as NFTs and DeFi projects.
Alarm Sounded
Financial Times reported that a leaked memo from New York-based hedge fund Elliott Management warned that Trump’s endorsement of these digital currencies risks a speculative frenzy that will “wreak havoc” on financial markets.
Ironically enough, Elliott’s founder, Paul Singer, has very close ties with Trump’s political machine. Having been earlier skeptical of crypto this year, Singer donated $56 million to conservative candidates in 2024, including $5 million to the “Make America Great Again” PAC.
Crypto, Politics and Wall Street
Since Trump’s re-election, Bitcoin has soared past $100,000, bolstered by his pledge to make America “the Bitcoin superpower of the world.” He wasted no time in issuing an executive order intended to strengthen a national crypto stockpile.
Yet Elliott’s memo wonders why the U.S. would promote dollar alternatives when other nations are actively working to move away from it.
Meanwhile, Trump’s crypto foray rages on with new products everything from MAGA-themed sneakers to a meme coin tied to the former First Lady Melania Trump. Whether his meme coin will recover or be sent to the dustbin of history remains to be seen.
