Over the weekend, US President-elect Donald Trump took the crypto industry by storm with an unexpected launch. Trump announced on social media he was launching the official TRUMP memecoin on the Solana blockchain last Friday, kickstarting a multi-billion three-day frenzy that sparked heavy community backlash.
Crypto Market On Its ‘Memecoin Era’
Ki Young Ju, founder and CEO of CryptoQuant, shared his thoughts on the weekend frenzy, announcing that “Trump opened the Era of Memecoins.” In keeping with the X post, “financial markets have all the time been about chasing memes,” and following trends “is nothing latest” for financial investors.
Ju identified that the rise of the Web and social media has made spreading ideas faster and enabled them to succeed in a wider audience. He also highlighted crypto exchanges had already opened the door to “an era of retail investing,” wherein people take a more hands-on approach as an alternative of “parking their money in banks or index funds.”
CryptoQuant CEO weighs in on Trump memecoin frenzy. Source: Ki Young Ju on X
In consequence, investors who lack expertise follow trends, take heed to influencers, and learn from what others are doing. “It’s unlikely retail investors will suddenly get smarter about investing, and without government regulations, the herding behavior around trendy keywords won’t stop,” he stated.
The CEO considers that “the Trump administration seems less all in favour of regulating this phenomenon and more inclined to benefit from it,” suggesting that their approach is “if it’s inevitable, use them.”
Furthermore, he added that celebrity tokens are only certainly one of the forms memecoins can take, asserting that “the underlying reality of economic markets behaving like memes isn’t going away, so it’s price considering how one can take advantage of it.”
Ju believes that the upcoming president is “more likely to use” his token holders as a “powerful community base for collective motion,” adding that the token’s value will rely upon what Trump does and is unlikely to go to zero unless the president pulls the rug on his “fervent fan base.”
If a star coin issuer avoids rug-pulling and takes responsibility for his or her sales, it’s not as harmful as you would possibly think. Even Bitcoin had its justifiable share of pyramid scheme promoters within the early days, selling to elderly investors. Now, with its massive price rise, those self same scammers began being called “visionaries.”
He concluded that whatever the community’s feelings, the continuing wave is “unstoppable—not less than until 2028,” suggesting that investors should prepare for the following wave.
Trump Token Frenzy To Proceed
Despite investors’ initial concerns a couple of hacking scam, Trump’s official token experienced a meteoric rise just a few hours after launching, reaching a market capitalization of $6 billion by Saturday morning.
Throughout the next day, the US President’s official memecoin surged to an all-time high (ATH) of $75 and a market capitalization of $15 billion. The token eclipsed the crypto market, with only just a few cryptocurrencies following its lead. Amid the weekend rally, Bitcoin (BTC) turned the $102,000 resistance into support, while Solana (SOL) hit a latest ATH of $270.
Nonetheless, the unexpected launch was also met with heavy criticism from the community. Crypto investors expressed their concerns and discontent on X, with some members suggesting the token could harm the industry’s popularity.
Meanwhile, others called out the upcoming President’s memecoin enterprise a “grift.” As reported by Bitcoinist, popular web investigator Coffeezilla expressed his skepticism on social media. “Dropping TRUMP memecoin 2 days before becoming president is nasty work,” he stated, adding that “latest SEC/DOJ guarantees no prosecution.”
The criticism grew on Sunday afternoon when incoming First Lady Melania Trump announced the launch of her memecoin, MELANIA, on Solana. After the launch, the market saw a 6% correction, with BTC briefly dropping below $100,000 and TRUMP nosediving 30% in an hour from its ATH price to $49.
Nonetheless, the market has began to get better amid the Inauguration Day rally. The flagship crypto hit a latest ATH of $109,000 earlier before retracing slightly below the previous ATH range. Some analysts expect today to be “very volatile in each directions” but remain optimistic concerning the coming months with the brand new crypto-friendly administration.
Bitcoin's performance within the one-week chart. Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView
Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com