SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Donald Trump’s newly minted cryptocurrency rose to over $9 billion in market value on Monday, attracting billions of dollars in trading volume just hours before the U.S. president-elect returns to the White House.
According to CoinMarketCap, the meme coin, also known as $TRUMP, rose 73% to $46.06 during Asian trading hours on Monday, giving it a market cap of about $9.2 billion. Its 24-hour trading volume reached $42.2 billion.
Trump on Friday launched the digital token bearing an image of his assassination attempt in July, expanding his cryptocurrency interests, which already include World Liberty Financial.
Even participants in the cryptocurrency community were surprised by the launch of Trump’s meme coin.
“While it is tempting to dismiss this as another Trump spectacle, the launch of the official Trump token opens a Pandora’s box (OTC:) of ethical and regulatory questions,” said Justin D’Anethan, an independent crypto analyst with Based in Hong Kong.
While the coin represented a fusion of the world of decentralized finance (DeFi) with the political arena, it also “blurred the lines between governance, profit and influence,” D’Anethan said.
“Should public figures, especially those with such political influence, exercise this kind of influence on speculative markets? This is a question that regulators are unlikely to ignore,” he said.
Peter Schiff, chief economist and global strategist at Euro Pacific Asset Management, noted the jump in value of $TRUMP on messaging platform X, calling it the new digital gold.
Trump has promised to be a “crypto president” and is expected to issue executive orders aimed at reducing regulatory barriers to cryptocurrencies and encouraging widespread adoption of digital assets.
He is scheduled to assume the presidency at 12:00 p.m. ET (1700 GMT) on Monday.
The prospect of looser regulations around crypto policy was met with great enthusiasm in the industry and sparked a rally in Bitcoin following Trump’s election victory in November.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency was last trading 2.6% lower at $101,826.51 on Monday and is up more than 10% for the month so far.
