US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania sent cryptocurrency markets into a frenzy in January when they each launched personally-branded meme coins, surging to a combined market cap of over $9.4 billion within four trading sessions.
Things have settled back since then and investor enthusiasm has cooled, but opportunities for gains haven’t entirely evaporated. Here’s our stripped down view of market performance and the underlying tokenomics shaping TRUMP and MELANIA’s trajectory.
At a glance
TRUMP and MELANIA meme coins were minted on the Solana blockchain. Both meme coins have a total supply of 1 billion tokens.
Market reaction to both coins has been mixed
TRUMP was more popular with crypto investors than MELANIA, pulling double the number of onchain holders. 80% of total TRUMP supply was allocated to insiders such as CIC Digital.
TRUMP explained
The Official Trump meme coin (TRUMP) is a cryptocurrency launched by US President Donald Trump in celebration of his 2024 US presidential election win.
The token launched on the Solana (SOL) blockchain on January 18, 2025 – two days before Trump’s inauguration as the 47th president of the United States.
According to the official website, the TRUMP token was created to “celebrate our win & have fun,” and intended to be used as an expression of support for the US president rather than an “investment opportunity.”
TRUMP is not the first meme coin to be affiliated with the US President. In 2024, Trump-affiliated DT Marks DEFI LLC launched the World Liberty Financial (WLFI) token.
MELANIA explained
The Official Melania meme coin (MELANIA) is a cryptocurrency launched by US First Lady Melania Trump on January 20, 2025.
Just like the TRUMP token, MELANIA was launched on the Solana blockchain. Other similarities between the two tokens include disclaimers that the MELANIA token is just an “expression of support” and not an “investment opportunity.”
As of January 22, 2025, the MELANIA token was the 112th most valuable cryptocurrency in the market with a market cap of over $766 million, data on CoinMarketCap showed.
Token Analysis
TRUMP Tokenomics
TRUMP has a total supply of 1 billion tokens. 200 millions tokens were created at launch. The rest of the total supply will be released over a period of three years.
Here is how the TRUMP token is distributed -
Allocation | Percentage of total supply |
|---|---|
Creators and CIC Digital 1 | 36% |
Creators and CIC Digital 2 | 18% |
Creators and CIC Digital 3 | 18% |
Liquidity | 10% |
Public distribution | 10% |
Creators and CIC Digital 4 | 4% |
Creators and CIC Digital 5 | 2% |
Creators and CIC Digital 6 | 2% |
MELANIA Tokenomics
MELANIA has a total supply of 1 billion tokens. As of January 22, 2025, about 192.21 million MELANIA coins were circulating in the market.
10% of MELANIA tokens allocated to the creator team will be unlocked 30 days after launch. Meanwhile, the remaining 90% will be released linearly at 2.5% per month.
Here is how the MELANIA token is distributed -
Allocation | Percentage of total supply |
|---|---|
Team | 35% |
Community | 20% |
Treasury | 20% |
Public distribution | 15% |
Liquidity | 10% |
TRUMP & MELANIA Market Performance
The TRUMP token hit an all-time high of $75.35 on January 19, 2025 – a day after launch. The meme coin has seen extremely high volatility dropping as much as 35% in an hour only to climb up over 20% in the next few hours.
The meme coin fell sharply after Donald Trump did not mention the word “crypto” in his inauguration speech. At the time of writing, the TRUMP token was trading at about $41.8, about 45% below its all-time high.
The MELANIA token has fared worse than the TRUMP token in the market. The token was trading at about $4 on January 22, 2024, about 50% below its opening price.
TRUMP was more popular among crypto investors than MELANIA with the former boasting double the number of onchain holders than the latter.
Data on blockchain explorer Solscan showed TRUMP had 801,681 onchain holders, while MELANIA had 358,569 onchain holders as of January 22, 2025.
Over $21.3 billion worth of TRUMP tokens were traded over the last 24-hours, as of January 22, 2025, compared to $818.08 million worth of MELANIA tokens, data on CoinMarketCap showed.
One of the biggest winners of Trump-affiliated meme coin launches has been the SOL token, which has gained over 34% in the last seven days as of January 22, 2025. In comparison, Bitcoin (BTC) has increased 9%, and Ether (ETH) has climbed 3.6% in the same period.
SOL hit an all-time high of $294 on January 19, 2025.
The takeaway
A note to investors from crypto trading firm QCP Capital said:
“Launching $TRUMP on SOL proves to be a significant endorsement of the chain, making it plausible that the SOL ETF could gain approval much earlier than expected. With increased media exposure from similar launches, retail inflows are likely to come streaming in.”