Donald Trump Token turns early adopters into millionaires

Is the coin real?

That was the question that worried crypto traders from the US to Asia alike as an “official” memecoin linked to Republican Donald Trump was issued early in Asia on Saturday from the verified accounts X and his Social Truth.

Prices ranged from a few cents to $14 in less than six hours amid widespread confusion over whether the token was actually backed by Trump or could be the existence of a Trump account with a fake token issued by the attacker in order to elude unsuspecting customers.

CoinDesk could not independently confirm whether the signal was legit or not as of early European hours on Saturday.

The token – which is viewed with skepticism among some traders – has attracted $3 billion in trading volumes hours after it went live and commands a market capitalization of $2 billion at current prices. It has given early buyers more than $70 million in paper gains, and smaller traders as much as $1 million, according to onchain data.

The move apparently comes days before Trump takes office on Jan. 20, and is the first time a sitting president has given memecoin a go. It's the latest in a long list of crypto-related businesses and products linked to Trump – with the Republican having previously issued several NFTs and the relatively new decentralized finance platform World Liberty Financial.

“I have the NEW Official Trump Meme HERE! It's time to celebrate everything we stand for: BLESS!,” X's post from the @realDonaldTrump account reads. “Join my exclusive Trump Community. GET YOUR $TRUMP NOW. Go to http://gettrumpmemes.com – Have fun!”

The X post went up at 2:44 UTC on Saturday and has stayed up until after 8:15 UTC. It was considered the first

The token was first posted on Truth Social Trump, where it ran from a gross valuation of $200 million to over $1.3 billion in just over an hour. It gained traction and interest from crypto traders after the X post.

A disclaimer on the meme's website stated that the Trump meme token was intended to act as “an expression of support for, and engagement with, the ideals and beliefs associated with the $ symbol TRUMP” and that they “did not intend to be, or to be. subject matter, investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any kind.”

The reasoning is in line with how the memecoin markets have shaped since the end of 2024, moving away from purely image-related tokens (such as dogecoin) to cultural tokens where holders believe in a vision or idea shared that the brand implies (such as SPX6900 flipping). US stock market, or MOG stands for “tokenized gain.”)

Meanwhile, some previously issued memecoins were on topic after Trump took a hit early Saturday, dropping as much as 50% as their value proposition collapsed.