Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla
Topics: Cryptocurrency, Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Social Media, Money, Business
Emily Brown
Topics: Cryptocurrency, Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Social Media, Money, Business
A Donald Trump 'memecoin' that turned hundreds of people into millionaires took a hit after the incoming First Lady Melania Trump launched a coin of her own.
Because even when you're about to be put in charge of one of the most powerful countries in the world, there's still time for a side hustle.
Melania announced the launch of her 'Official Melania Meme' in a post on Twitter last night (January 19), just hours after the '$Trump' memecoin was presented to the world.
The coins come as Trump prepares to return to the Oval Office today (January 20), when he will be inaugurated as the 47th president taking over from Joe Biden.
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Trump launched his very own cryptocurrency with a post on his Truth Social social media account, where he encouraged followers to join him in ‘winning’ to celebrate his presidency.
A disclaimer on Trump's website points out that the coin is 'not intended to be' an investment opportunity, nor is it a 'political' crypto, but instead declared: "This Trump Meme celebrates a leader who doesn't back down, no matter the odds."
Trump fans quickly jumped on the bandwagon and bought the coin, and its value soon skyrocketed up to an incredible $14 billion.
Within just six hours, $Trump went from a few cents to $14 and just kept climbing, prompting more than 500 people to declare themselves $TRUMP millionaires less than 24 hours of investing in the coins.
Seemingly not wanting her husband to have all the fun, it wasn't long before Melania announced her own memecoin.
$Melania has been launched on the Solana blockchain, the same as Trump's, and quickly received interest of its own as its value pushed to more than $5, resulting in a fully diluted market cap of over $5 billion, Forbes reports.
Though cryptocurrency seems to have become a family business in the Trump household, unfortunately, the launch of Melania's coin initially had some adverse impacts on the incoming president's crypto as Trump's memecoin crashed by around 40 percent.
Experts at The Kobeissi Letter, which provides commentary on the global capital markets, described the rapidly changing landscape as 'insane'.
In a post on Twitter, it wrote: "The coin just erased over $5 billion in market cap in a matter of seconds. $MELANIA coin is being viewed as a competitor against $TRUMP coin. This has resulted in a sharp drop in demand for $TRUMP."
In spite of the initial impact, Trump didn't seem to see Melania as a competitor as her social media posts announcing the coin were shared to Trump's own platforms.
His confidence appears to have paid off as $Trump has since made a recovery, rising up up more than 110 percent from the low it hit after the $Melania launch.