SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Donald Trump’s new cryptocurrency soared on Monday to a market value of more than $9 billion, attracting billions of dollars in trading volume just hours before the U.S. president-elect returns to the White House.
The meme coin, also known as $TRUMP, surged 73% to $46.06 on Monday during Asian hours, giving it a market capitalization of around $9.2 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. Its 24-hour trading volume reached $42.2 billion.
Trump had launched the digital token bearing an image of his assassination attempt in July on Friday, expanding his cryptocurrency interests that already include World Liberty Financial.
Even participants in the cryptocurrency community were surprised by the launch of Trump’s meme coin.
“While it’s tempting to dismiss this as just another Trump show, the launch of Trump’s official token opens a Pandora’s box of ethical and regulatory questions,” said Justin D’Anethan, a crypto analyst. independent based in Hong Kong.
Although the coin represents a blending of the world of decentralized finance (DeFi) into the political arena, it also “blurs the lines between governance, profit and influence,” D’Anethan said.
“Should public figures, especially those with such political clout, exercise this kind of influence over speculative markets? This is a question regulators are unlikely to ignore,” he said .
Peter Schiff, chief economist and global strategist at Euro Pacific Asset Management, highlighted the rise in the value of $TRUMP and called it the new digital gold, on the X messaging platform.
Trump has promised to be a “crypto president” and is expected to issue executive orders aimed at reducing regulatory barriers to crypto and promoting widespread adoption of digital assets.
He is expected to take over the presidency on Monday at noon ET (5:00 p.m. GMT).
The prospect of looser regulation around crypto policy was greeted with fanfare by the industry and accelerated bitcoin’s rally following Trump’s election victory in November.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency last traded down 2.6% at $101,826.51 on Monday, and is up more than 10% for the month so far.
