Donald Trump’s official memecoin started new speculative activity in the Solana ecosystem almost overnight.
Multiple large-cap Solana-based tokens rose higher on Saturday, and the blockchain’s native SOL token set new highs above $275 as the incoming US president backed a new Solana-based TRUMP token on Friday night, calling it his “official” memecoin.
The selection of Solana as an issuance network has impacted the demand and sentiment for SOL tokens, as CoinDesk reported Saturday
SOL’s trading volume rose from $3 billion on Thursday to over $26 billion over the past 24 hours, with Saturday’s moves bringing the weekly gain to over 46%.
That’s a nearly 3,000% surge since a three-year low of $9 in December 2022 following the implosion of crypto exchange FTX and prominent backer Sam Bankman-Fried, who dampened sentiment for Solana at the time.
Trump’s official memecoin was issued late in the US on Friday on the Solana blockchain by a team with ecosystem giants Jupiter and Meteora. The prices of Jupiter’s JUP tokens have increased by 30% in the last 24 hours.
The token launch was coordinated by CIC Digital LLC – an affiliate of the Trump Organization, and the newly founded company Fight Fight Fight LLC, per the BBC. The duo owns 80% of the tokens, subject to a vesting period of more than three years, and it’s unclear how much money Trump might make from the venture.
TRUMP prices rose from a few cents to $14 in less than six hours amid widespread confusion over whether the token was actually backed by Trump or whether someone hacked into Trump’s account and issued a fake token.
It was trading above $44 during the afternoon hours of Asia Sunday, gaining listings on prominent exchanges Coinbase and Binance, as well as several future products. It became the third largest memecoin by market capitalization behind dogecoin (DOGE) and shiba inu (SHIB), flipping pepecoin (PEPE).
