It’s not every day that a U.S. president issues a Solana meme coin, but at least it appeared on Donald Trump’s social media accounts Friday night.
Three days before his second inauguration, President Trump’s official X (formerly Twitter) and Truth Social accounts shared an announcement about a new meme coin based on Solana, $TRUMP.
“My new official Trump meme is here! It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: victory! Join my special Trump community. Get your $TRUMP now,” the post said with a link to the website.
President Trump’s tweet regarding $TRUMP (Source: https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1880446012168249386)
Within minutes, the cryptocurrency was trading for hundreds of millions of dollars as excited traders rushed in, skeptics raised alarms, and blockchain sleuths began investigating.
Within hours, $TRUMP had a market cap of nearly $7.5 trillion.
But are President Trump’s meme coins really legal?
Evidence so far suggests two possibilities. Either this is an official launch sanctioned by President Trump, or his account was hacked in what could be one of the most elaborate cryptocurrency scams in recent memory. That’s it.
Let’s unravel the situation.
What Happened: President Trump’s Solana Meme Coin Moon
The announcement was made late Friday night, first on Truth Social and shortly after on Trump’s X account.
According to some rumors, he confirmed it at a cryptocurrency gala.
Both posts featured identical language promoting $TRUMP, along with links to websites similar to those used for Trump’s past NFT collections.
The coin’s website credits CIC Digital, the same official licensee behind President Trump’s 2022 and 2023 NFT collections. The site’s infrastructure and deployment also match President Trump’s earlier ventures, leading some to conclude that it is legitimate.
Meme coins quickly gained attention. Currently, $TRUMP is trading at $8.32 and has a self-reported market cap of $6.7 billion. However, as 80% of the token is locked and will be gradually unlocked over the next three years, the circulating supply and its true market capitalization will be much smaller.
According to blockchain tracking sites, the coin recorded around $680 million in trading volume in its first hours of existence, ranking it as one of the most actively traded new cryptocurrencies. .
The claim that $TRUMP is legal
If this is a project approved by President Trump, it would be in line with his recent pro-crypto stance. Trump has previously dipped his toe into Web3 with multiple NFT collections and has publicly supported decentralized finance platform World Liberty Financial.
Observers have noted that the $TRUMP website looks very similar to Trump’s NFT site, right down to the hosting provider, Heroku.
This consistency has led blockchain experts like the pseudonymous engineer cygaar to suggest that the same team likely deployed both projects.
$TRUMP price movement on Jupiter Exchange
Additionally, the X and Truth Social posts remained public for more than 12 hours with no follow-up from the Trump campaign indicating hacking or disavowal.
Trump’s presidency has also leaned heavily into memes and online engagement, and launching an official meme coin as a cultural and economic rallying point wouldn’t be entirely out of place.
Additionally, he is close to X’s owner Elon Musk. If it was a hack, he has direct access to the owner of the platform – the owner of more than 99.99% of the people whose X profile was hacked.
Reasons for skepticism: Is Trump’s meme coin a scam?
Despite the evidence to the contrary, there is reason to remain cautious.
First, the funding source for this coin has raised eyebrows.
On-chain detectives discovered that the project was seeded with millions of dollars from wallets linked to Binance and Gate.io, exchanges that do not serve U.S. customers. This is an unusual choice for a project involving the president of the United States, and potentially problematic from a regulatory perspective.
Second, Trump’s high profile has made his account a prime target for hackers.
$TRUMP holder
One red flag is that the top 10 holders own 86% of the coin and have not relinquished ownership of the contract.
The cryptocurrency industry has seen countless examples of celebrity accounts being compromised to facilitate pump-and-dump scams. In most cases, hacked posts are deleted quickly, but the long-term persistence of these posts complicates things.
Finally, many meme coins experience sharp rallies while the coin is actively traded, followed by similarly sharp declines as liquidity dries up or early adopters sell their holdings. I will. It remains to be seen whether $TRUMP will maintain its value or turn out to be a speculative bubble.
So what if $TRUMP is real?
If $TRUMP is legal, it could signal a major change in President Trump’s approach to cryptocurrencies, and there will be a need to discuss the role of meme coins going forward.
As a sitting president, his support for meme coins would elevate the conversation around cryptocurrencies to the highest levels of global politics, and probably not in a good way.
President Trump-backed meme coins will also pose opportunities and risks for the U.S. crypto market.
On the other hand, it could rally his supporters around blockchain technology and boost its adoption.
On the other hand, questions arise about the regulatory implications of the president directly promoting cryptocurrencies.
What it means if $TRUMP is a scam
If Trump’s account is hacked, it could go down as one of the most sophisticated scams in crypto history.
The similarities to Trump’s past NFT projects, combined with the coin’s rapid adoption, suggest that the attackers went to great lengths to make the project look authentic.
If a fraud of this scale were to occur, there would likely be increasing calls for stronger regulation of cryptocurrencies and greater oversight of high-profile accounts.
It’s also another warning for traders who are chasing the latest trends without doing proper due diligence.
How to purchase $TRUMP
Buyer beware – this is not financial advice.
Those interested in purchasing $TRUMP must do so through a Solana-based exchange such as the Jupiter exchange and using a non-custodial wallet such as the Phantom wallet.
Although this is not a verified coin, the contract address is listed on sites like CoinMarketCap as 6p6xgHyF7AeE6TZkSmFsko444wqoP15icUSqi2jfGiPN.
This can also be found in SolScan.
The next step is to paste the address into the coin search bar. Because there are already dozens of Trump fake meme coins (if this one is considered real) floating around. This will allow you to purchase with SOL or other SOL compatible tokens.
Final Thoughts: The Current State of $TRUMP
At this point, the jury is still out on whether $TRUMP is real or a scam. The evidence leans toward legitimacy, but in the world of cryptocurrencies, appearances can be deceiving.
For now, it is impossible to ignore the coin’s trading volume and market activity. Whether $TRUMP becomes a cultural phenomenon or a passing meme, it is already a defining moment for cryptocurrencies in 2025.
As always, if you are considering participating, please proceed with caution. Cryptocurrency markets remain volatile, and even legitimate projects can carry significant risks. Stay tuned to President Trump’s official channels and the broader crypto community for updates. And as always, don’t invest more than you can afford to lose.
