From hype to disappointment: the story of the TRUMP cryptocurrency
In January 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump launched his own memecoin on the Solana blockchain called OFFICIAL TRUMP (TRUMP), which immediately attracted a lot of attention.
At first, many investors were wary of the TRUMP cryptocurrency, since the token was launched without prior notice and was available only on decentralized exchanges Raydium, Orca, Meteora, and Manifest. However, just a few hours after the launch, Trump officially announced the token, which caused an absolute frenzy among investors.
The very next day, the TRUMP token was listed on major centralized exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken, and its market capitalization grew from $750 million to a record $9 billion. At the same time, the price of the TRUMP cryptocurrency rose by more than 300% and reached its all-time high (ATH) of $75. Thanks to this, the TRUMP token immediately entered the top 20 cryptocurrencies, overtaking major projects such as Polkadot, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Uniswap, and Hyperliquid.
In the very first days after launch, the daily trading volume of the TRUMP cryptocurrency exceeded $40 billion, indicating high investor and trader interest despite the lack of practical utility. For comparison, Ethereum, the leading altcoin, had a daily volume of $57 billion.
According to The New Yorker, thanks to the launch of his own memecoin, Trump's fortune increased by $385 million. Although Trump himself denied this information in the media, claiming that he does not profit from the TRUMP cryptocurrency.
What happened to the "presidential" memecoin?
After the triumphant launch, the situation with the TRUMP cryptocurrency worsened, despite the memecoin remaining among the largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, alongside Filecoin, Jupiter, and Optimism.
However, since being listed on major centralized exchanges, the TRUMP memecoin has lost much of its position, falling from 18th to 62nd place in the overall cryptocurrency ranking as of September 2025. Over the same period, its market capitalization dropped more than 5 times, from $9 billion to $1.7 billion.
The TRUMP cryptocurrency is currently priced at $8.4, almost 90% below its all-time high. Despite generally favorable conditions for the Web3 industry and the growth of key cryptocurrencies, the TRUMP memecoin's price has not only failed to rise over the last three months but has dropped by more than 10%. For comparison, many major altcoins increased in value by 40–100% over the same period.
One of the reasons for TRUMP's negative trend may have been the large token unlock in July 2025. According to Tokenomist, 45% of the total TRUMP token supply (1 billion) was unlocked. Before this unlock, the TRUMP cryptocurrency ranked 53rd on CoinMarketCap.
Criticism of the TRUMP cryptocurrency
It is not surprising that Trump's memecoin faced sharp criticism both from the crypto community and regulatory authorities. The first group pointed out the lack of real-world use for the TRUMP cryptocurrency, noting that the hype surrounding the asset was primarily driven by the president's political status and was largely speculative in nature. This eventually became one of the main reasons for declining activity around TRUMP.
Another source of criticism was the high concentration of tokens in the hands of insiders and companies affiliated with Trump. According to analysts, such holdings account for up to 80% of the total TRUMP supply.
Some well-known figures in the digital asset space also criticized Trump's memecoin, calling it not only useless but also harmful to the entire industry.
The New Yorker journalist David D. Kirkpatrick noted that the TRUMP memecoin carries no intrinsic value, unlike Bitcoin and stablecoins, which are widely used in cross-border payments and in the decentralized finance (DeFi) market. And well-known Bitcoin investor Erik Voorhees outright called Trump's cryptocurrency "stupid and shameful."
The issuance of TRUMP tokens was condemned by ethicists, financial experts, and political figures, including:
- Former Coinbase executive Nick Tomaino;
- Anthony Scaramucci, former White House Communications Director under Trump's first administration.
Government oversight agencies believe that the launch of the TRUMP cryptocurrency is a direct violation of ethical norms and an attempt by a politician to profit from his position.
Nevertheless, the Corporate Finance Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) did not classify the TRUMP cryptocurrency as a security, citing its speculative nature and lack of inherent utility.
TRUMP cryptocurrency forecast: what to expect?
A negative factor could be the linear token unlock, under which almost 700,000 TRUMP will enter the market daily. This could create additional pressure on the price in the absence of large purchases. Other negative factors may include declining hype around the memecoin and political uncertainty.
Despite this, some analysts give a positive outlook for the memecoin's future price. In their opinion, the TRUMP cryptocurrency could rise to $16–28, and in an even more optimistic scenario, up to $60–100. However, other experts are more cautious and believe that the TRUMP rate in 2025 may reach only $7.