It was a Friday evening bombshell that no one noticed coming.
Three days earlier than his second inauguration final January, President Donald Trump’s social media accounts lit up with information of the launch of Official Trump (TRUMP), a Solana-based meme coin bearing his identify and political model.
The token jumped to a $10 billion market cap inside hours, reaching a peak of $73 and sending degen merchants right into a frenzy, triggering greater than 8 million requests per minute that overwhelmed Phantom Pockets’s infrastructure.
A 12 months on, and the TRUMP token is buying and selling just under $5, down about 93% from its all-time excessive, with a market cap exceeding $987 million, in response to CoinGecko information.
As TRUMP turns one, conflict-of-interest questions stay unresolved—the Trump household continues to run a number of crypto ventures whereas the President is in workplace, and Democrats more and more cite his private enrichment as a purpose to dam digital asset reform.
“Trump’s meme coin launch has completed extra hurt than good to the business as his political opponents are citing his private features from the meme coin launch as a purpose to dam or decelerate the crypto’s legislative course of,” Peter Chung, head of analysis at Singapore-based Presto Labs, informed Decrypt. “It is an pointless distraction.”
Trump’s crypto conflicts have dominated debate and even delayed the passage of the stablecoin GENIUS Act.
In Could, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) led a Democratic walkout over “Trump’s crypto corruption” in a bid to power divestment language into the invoice.
The president’s crypto connections stretch from the meme coin to World Liberty Financial and its USD1 stablecoin.
His household’s crypto empire has mushroomed to generate greater than $1 billion in profits, in response to his son, Eric Trump, who informed the Monetary Occasions in October that the determine was “in all probability extra.”
Final Could, Rep. Waters introduced the “Cease TRUMP in Crypto Act of 2025,” aimed toward concentrating on the president’s capability to revenue from digital property whereas in workplace.
Trump-Backed World Liberty Financial Launches Crypto Lending Platform
That very same month, the president held a closed-door dinner for the highest 220 TRUMP holders (press barred), together with Tron founder Justin Solar, who purchased over $22 million in TRUMP and invested tens of hundreds of thousands in World Liberty.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) known as the dinner “an orgy of corruption” throughout a press convention, whereas tons of of protesters gathered exterior the venue.
World Liberty Monetary has drawn related scrutiny, with the Trump household’s WLFI stake swelling their web value by over $6 billion since buying and selling started. Trump disclosed $57.3 million in earnings in June that lawmakers known as “open corruption,” and Sen. Warren labelled a $2 billion UAE funding tied to the challenge’s stablecoin USD1 “shady.”
Decrypt has reached out to the White Home for remark.
