Is $TRUMP Bullish or Bearish For Crypto?

Donald Trump’s world-stopping memecoin has divided the crypto community. Is this the beginning or the end?

Published: Jan 20, 2025 at 09:52
Edited: Jan 20, 2025 at 10:04

Crypto history is dotted with moments that changed the industry forever. Events like the Mt. Gox hack and FTX collapse loom large over the blockchain world, becoming key reference points for non-crypto folk across the planet.

On January 18, 2025, Donald Trump launched his official $TRUMP memecoin, marking his ascension to power as one of the defining moments in crypto history.

$TRUMP exploded to an all-time FDV (Fully Diluted Valuation) of over $75B, briefly flipping $DOGE to become the largest memecoin in crypto history within 48 hours of launch.

Crypto enthusiasts are divided on what $TRUMP means for the industry. Does a Donald Trump memecoin herald the start of a new future for crypto, or is $TRUMP a reputational blow from which the industry will never recover?

Another Iconic Moment in Crypto History: $TRUMP

President-Elect Donald Trump launching a Solana memecoin mere days before reclaiming the Oval Office and becoming the most powerful political figure on earth took most by surprise.

Despite early fears that Trump’s social media accounts were hacked, $TRUMP went on a biblical run over the weekend.

Traders netted millions in profits as $TRUMP relentlessly surged from a launch price of just under $0.20 to an all-time high of $75, creating one of the biggest wealth events in crypto history.

Donald Trump’s team stealth-launched his memecoin during the DC Crypto Ball, a black-tie event where the industry’s biggest names came together to celebrate a new future for the industry.

Attendees were reportedly unaware of the viral memecoin, which degens and on-chain traders caught long before centralized exchanges and the ‘crypto elite’.

The $TRUMP launch is undoubtedly one of the biggest moments in blockchain history. However, while the Solana faithful expressed boundless excitement toward $TRUMP, the wider crypto community has argued that the memecoin’s success is a step backward for the industry.

Why $TRUMP is Bullish For Crypto

The $TRUMP launch was a landmark event not only for crypto as a whole, but specifically for the Solana network. Widely considered the industry’s most performant Layer-1 network, Solana broke multiple onchain records over the course of the weekend.

Solana’s DEX trading volume soared to unprecedented heights. According to DefiLlama data, DEX trading volume on Solana exploded to record highs of over $23.7B, constituting 65% of total volume across all chains. Notably, Solana’s onchain volume was over 3x higher than not only Ethereum, but all its L2s combined.

With 11 days left in the month, Solana catapulted past $160B in monthly DEX volume, obliterating the previous record of $140B recorded by BNB Chain in 2021.

Beyond onchain trading milestones, the $TRUMP launch is perhaps the largest singular onboarding event in crypto history. Thanks to the simplicity and retail-friendly UI of Solana platform’s like Moonshot, over 400,000 newcomers bought cryptocurrency for the very first time.

After facing years of criticism for network outages, Solana emphatically proved its detractors wrong. Despite unprecedented demand and astronomical strain, the Solana network maintained perfect uptime.

Championing the network’s performance, Anza contributor and former Ethereum researcher Max Resnick called Solana’s performance throughout the launch “astonishing”.

“The Solana of March 2024 couldn’t have handled this. The degree to which Solana knocked it out of the park last night is astonishing. So much progress in 9 months!” - Max Resnick, Anza Contributor

By choosing to launch his iconic memecoin on Solana, one of the world’s most powerful figures gave the network, and the industry at large, a resounding stamp of approval. President Trump has been vocally supportive of the crypto industry, and his hands-on approach may inspire other businesses to explore blockchain solutions.

Finally, The $TRUMP launch was entirely orchestrated onchain, with several Solana ecosystem pillars co-operating to deliver a cohesive launch experience. Built on Meteora’s liquidity stack and the Jupiter LFG platform, $TRUMP’s DeFi debut onchain was technically flawless, suggesting the Solana is well-equipped to handle launches of similar scale in the future.

For the first time in crypto history, centralized exchanges are at risk of being left behind. $TRUMP’s success lends greater credence and confidence to the belief that the future of finance is onchain.

Why $TRUMP is Bearish For Crypto

While much of the crypto community relished the President’s behavior, others have denounced Trump’s continued involvement in the sector.

The $TRUMP launch has been called everything from an elaborate scam extracting value from retail investors to an insult to decentralization and everything crypto set out to achieve. At worst, social media commentators theorized that $TRUMP could be used as an anonymous geopolitical weapon.

Prominent figures have also expressed unease around what the $TRUMP launch could indicate for the future of cryptocurrency regulation in the U.S. wassielawyer, a thought leader in crypto law, admitted feeling concerned that the President could have the “wrong people” advising him on crypto policy.

Others have called the $TRUMP launch the pico-top for the Solana ecosystem. Ethereum supporters have long slandered Solana, arguing it relies entirely on its role as a memecoin casino to sustain activity. Detractors claim there is no bigger meme, and that “it is quite literally all downhill from here”.

This is also far from the first time Trump has launched crypto-related products, only to disregard their existence in the months following their launch completely. Trump has previously faced heavy criticism from the general public on account of his Digital Trading Card Collection.

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Some crypto OGs have even taken the launch as their potential cue to exit the space forever. According to commentators on Social Media, the $TRUMP launch represents the antithesis of crypto’s fundamental values and casts the industry in a bad light.

Ultimately, $TRUMP’s legacy and lasting effect on the crypto industry will likely depend on the memecoin’s ongoing performance. If $TRUMP maintains its value, sentiment will likely remain positive and the launch will be seen as a triumph for the industry.

$TRUMP dumping and bleeding out from here will have the opposite effect. If investors suffer losses, the President’s memecoin will likely be viewed as a blemish on the industry’s history and reputation in the years to come.