Donald Trump’s official memecoin has fueled new speculative activity in the Solana ecosystem almost overnight.
Multiple Solana-based large-cap tokens rose on Saturday, and the blockchain-native SOL token set new highs above $275 as the incoming US president endorsed a new Solana-based TRUMP token on Friday night. , calling it their “official” memecoin.
The choice of Solana as the issuance network increased demand and sentiment for SOL tokens, as CoinDesk reported on Saturday.
SOL trading volumes have skyrocketed from $3 billion on Thursday to more than $26 billion in the past 24 hours, with Saturday’s moves pushing weekly gains up more than 46%.
This is a nearly 3,000% increase from three-year lows of $9 in December 2022 following the implosion of crypto exchange FTX and prominent backer Sam Bankman-Fried, which affected sentiment towards Solana at the time.
Trump’s official memecoin was issued late in the US on Friday on the Solana blockchain by a team that included ecosystem giants Jupiter and Meteora. Jupiter JUP token prices are up 30% in the last 24 hours.
The token launch was coordinated by CIC Digital LLC, an affiliate of the Trump Organization, and the newly formed company Fight Fight Fight LLC, according to the BBC. The duo owns 80% of the tokens, subject to a vesting period of more than three years, and it is unclear how much money Trump could make from the venture.
TRUMP prices skyrocketed from a few cents to $14 in less than six hours amid widespread confusion over whether the token was actually backed by Trump or if someone had hacked into Trump’s account and issued a fake token.
It is trading above $44 in the Asian afternoon hours of Sunday, dominating quotes on the prominent Coinbase and Binance exchanges, as well as several futures products. It has become the third largest memecoin by market capitalization behind dogecoin (DOGE) and shiba inu (SHIB), surpassing pepecoin (PEPE).
