In January 2025, the most striking cryptocurrency event was the issuance of a token named TRUMP by former U.S. President Donald Trump. The token reached a market capitalization of $80 billion at its peak and significantly impacted the liquidity of other Meme coins in the market. As of now, the price of the TRUMP token has remained around $40.

Although this model is difficult to replicate directly, as not everyone has such social status and influence, the success of the TRUMP token provides some observable investment trends and market reactions. Investors can learn how to evaluate celebrity-related crypto assets and understand the market's acceptance of such projects.

Early Stage: Overview of TRUMP Issuance Details

December 21, 2024: The domain gettrumpmemes.com was purchased.

January 17, 2025: Initial minting.

January 18, 2025: Around 10 AM, a DEX trading pair was created, and trading began.

Twenty minutes later, Trump announced the launch of his personal Meme coin TRUMP on his Truth Social account.

Forty-five minutes later, Trump posted an official tweet to emphasize it again.

January 18, 2025: At 12 PM, TRUMP's market capitalization surpassed $8 billion, taking only 2 hours.

January 18, 2025: In the evening, Trump's eldest son Eric Trump posted to confirm the "legitimacy" of TRUMP.

These are important information points regarding TRUMP on its first day of issuance, but even so, interpretations of each point vary.

For example, when Trump first announced the news on his Truth Social account, many media outlets or KOLs warned of the risk of "potential hacking," which deterred many people. However, some KOLs analyzed that when they saw the news, they still clicked into the official website gettrumpmemes.com. According to the website, the initial purchase of TRUMP needed to be done through Moonshot, supporting traditional payment methods like Apple Pay, Visa, Mastercard, Venmo, as well as cryptocurrencies like USDC and SOL. Their first reaction was not to suspect it was a phishing site because the website redirected to Moonshot; they believed that a low-quality or fake Meme could not persuade Moonshot to list it, so they bought TRUMP based on this detail.

Furthermore, after Trump confirmed its authenticity on both platforms, those who entered the market believed the market cap was too high and the token price too high, thinking that TRUMP would pull back after breaking $10, which led a significant number of people to "timely" exit after entering.

Mid Stage: Mainstream Exchanges "Rapidly" Listed, Royal Treatment for Meme

As one of the first trading platforms to list TRUMP, Moonshot experienced a surge in users during this wave. On January 18, the number of new users reached 400,000 in a single day, with daily active users surpassing 1 million. Additionally, mainstream centralized exchanges listed TRUMP from January 18 to January 19, with the speed and scale of listings being among the top in many well-known Memes.

Huobi's announcement regarding the listing of TRUMP spot trading: January 18, 2025, at 5:40 PM (UTC+8)

Bitget's announcement regarding the listing of TRUMP spot trading: January 18, 2025, at 6:40 PM (UTC+8)

BitMart's announcement regarding the listing of TRUMP spot trading: January 18, 2025, at 11:00 PM (UTC+8)

OKEx's announcement regarding the listing of TRUMP spot trading: January 19, 2025, at 1:00 PM (UTC+8)

Binance's announcement regarding the listing of TRUMP spot trading: January 19, 2025, at 4:30 PM (UTC+8)

Late Stage: Late Realization, the Official Website Contains Class Action Waiver Clause

On the first day of TRUMP's launch, everyone's attention was focused on the token price and market performance, and it wasn't until the next day that someone discovered the "disclaimer" on the official website.

The purchase terms for TRUMP included a class action waiver clause. The clause stated: "To the extent permitted by law, investors participating in the purchase agree not to bring, join, or participate in any class action against any insured party for any claims, disputes, or controversies. Investors agree to enter into injunctive relief to stop such lawsuits or to have you removed as a participant in the lawsuit. Investors agree to pay any insured party's attorney fees and litigation costs incurred in seeking such relief. This clause prevents investors from bringing, joining, or participating in class actions: (i) does not constitute a waiver of any rights or remedies of investors to bring individual claims, nor does it constitute a waiver of class actions in the aforementioned binding arbitration; (ii) is an independent agreement. Investors may provide written notice of their decision to opt-out of these dispute resolution terms within thirty (30) days from the first visit to the website."

The core of the clause is to stipulate that purchasers cannot initiate or participate in class actions against TRUMP, allowing the token issuer to avoid many risks, indicating that TRUMP was well-prepared before its issuance.

Additionally, the total supply of TRUMP is 1 billion tokens, but only 200 million will be circulated at the beginning, with the remaining 800 million belonging to Trump's affiliated companies, CIC Digital LLC and Fight Fight Fight LLC, which will gradually unlock over the next three years. However, this highly centralized economic model could lead to significant losses for ordinary investors if negative news emerges in the market, as the issuer might manipulate the market using the large number of tokens they hold, causing prices to plummet. Even with so many "unfavorable clauses," once TRUMP is officially certified by Trump, it is enough to create a huge wave.

Solana Receives a Windfall, Token Price Breaks Historical Highs

TRUMP not only allowed many people to accumulate wealth but also further enhanced the value of Solana. Since TRUMP chose to issue on the Solana network, which has a stronger Meme atmosphere, rather than Ethereum, the market initially interpreted it as the president having "designated" Solana, with Ethereum being the "pill." Driven by this sentiment, SOL has surged significantly since TRUMP's launch, reaching a peak of over $295, breaking historical highs.

From the market performance perspective, the successful issuance of the TRUMP token within the Solana ecosystem has created a significant Matthew effect. As mentioned above, the Moonshot platform generated $400 million in trading volume and over 400,000 new users in just 12 hours, confirming Solana's advantages in user experience and trading efficiency, and more importantly, reinforcing the market's recognition of it as the preferred issuance platform for emerging tokens. This increase in recognition is forming a positive cycle, attracting more project parties to choose Solana as their issuance platform.

Conclusion

Although TRUMP was issued in a "quick and short" Meme manner, it was clearly backed by careful preparation, with aspects such as the official website domain, economic model, disclaimer, and message confirmation providing better packaging for the project. It is both a bold attempt and a form of identity and power that endows cryptocurrency with more value. For investors, such a high-certainty investment opportunity is rare; if one misses out on TRUMP, there is no need to worry, just summarize the experience and wait for the next investment opportunity.