The rise of meme coins: Exploring opportunities, risks, and expert insights
U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have entered the realm of digital assets by launching their respective meme coins, $TRUMP and $MELANIA. These tokens, launched in mid-January 2025, exhibit very high volatility and are highly responsive to the unpredictable meme coin market. On 17 January 2025, just days before his inauguration, Donald Trump unveiled the $TRUMP meme coin. Initially met with scepticism due to the absence of a formal announcement, the coins legitimacy was later confirmed through Trumps posts on social media platform X.
My NEW Official Trump Meme is HERE! Its time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING! Join my very special Trump Community. GET YOUR NOW. Go to Have Fun!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
The $TRUMP coins logo features a cartoon depiction of Trump raising his fist, commemorating his survival of an assassination attempt in July 2024. The projects website emphasised that the coin was not intended to be, or the subject of an investment opportunity or security and was not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign, political office, or government agency. The terms prohibited buyers from participating in class-action lawsuits against the project and asserted indemnity against any claims.
Following its launch, $TRUMPs price surged by over 300 percent overnight. Within two days, it became the 19th most valuable cryptocurrency globally, boasting a total trading value of nearly $13 billion, with each of the 200 million tokens valued at approximately $64 by the afternoon of 19 January. Reports indicated that Trump affiliates controlled an additional 800 million tokens, potentially significantly elevating Trumps net worth.
Two days after $TRUMP coin launched, Melania Trump introduced her meme coin, $MELANIA. The Solana-based token quickly achieved a valuation of $12 billion within three hours of its launch. However, the construction and security measures of the projects website have been criticised, which has led to questions about its legitimacy.
The Official Melania Meme is live!
— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP)
You can buy $MELANIA now.
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Meme coins market performance and volatility
The excitement surrounding both meme coins was short-lived. By 21 January 2025, the price of $TRUMP had declined by around 50 percent, falling from a high of $74 to about $38. Similarly, $MELANIA experienced a significant decrease, with its market capitalisation falling from $2 billion to $790 million.
As of 31 January 2025, $TRUMP is trading at approximately $0.745, reflecting a 0.11 percent decrease from the previous close, with an intraday high of $0.842 and a low of $0.742. Meanwhile, $MELANIA is priced at around $2.09, experiencing a 0.07 percent decline, with an intraday high of $2.30 and a low of $2.05.
Industry reactions and regulatory concerns
These high-profile launches of meme coins have sparked public debate within cryptocurrency circles. This speculation, often likened to gambling, threatens the reputation and future value of the field. Some are considering the involvement of gaming commissions to regulate the volatility issues associated with the inherent lack of value of the underlying asset.
Moreover, as meme coin-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) from asset managers gain momentum, there are apprehensions about creating 바카라-type speculation in the financial markets. The future of such digital assets will largely be dictated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissions response.
Speaking exclusively with AIBC World, Justin dAnethan, Head of Sales at Liquifi, a token launch service company based in the US, shared his views on the profound positive and negative impacts of this phenomenon. He elaborated on the promising future of the market and helped us to understand the intricate dynamics at play.
AIBC: What are the positive and negative impacts of the $TRUMP meme coin, which weve seen in the past week?
Justin dAnethan, Head of Sales at Liquifi:?The old industry is split between positive and negative. On the positive side, three dynamics are coming across. The first one is that its very supportive of the crypto space that the US president and administration would be involved with crypto. From that point, theres just a very good signal of support.
The second one is that it gives a little bit more leeway and a little bit more room for activity from a legal perspective because you assume that if youre a company, youre operating in crypto as long as youre not doing something too shady if youre just acting on it with best intentions, you shouldnt.
The third part signals to many companies that are not involved in crypto that they can now get involved in crypto. So, if youre Apple or Microsoft or a small company or an NFT or media or gaming and you want to do something with crypto, go ahead and do it because its okay.
The negative point that we have noticed is that a liquidity event happened with all the other coins. So essentially, the one you were talking about with the concentration is you have the Trump coin launching. And all the capital that was allocated and staying with. But that feels very negative for this. Its right because, of course, its cool that theres volume and activity, but if were being honest with ourselves, a meme coin is just a meme coin, right? Its not building DeFi solutions or creating an ecosystem where people can do various things.
Another disappointing thing is that if you look at the total market cap of crypto, it hasnt moved up by that much during the events. So essentially, that means that the capital traded was crypto-native guys and not necessarily people outside of crypto. They didnt have the time because you needed a Solana wallet to go onto the right DEX and know what was happening. And by the time you were aware, the Trump coin was already down quite a lot, and the Melania token was out and already down quite a lot and then the Baron token kind of went cascading down that way.
AIBC: Do meme coins pose any concerns regarding financial stability and national security?
dAnethan: Not at all. Even though theres a big speculative element to meme coins, I think people, even the average investor, are smart enough and knowledgeable enough to understand that it is very speculative and volatile, right? So, I dont think anybody is under the illusion that buying a Trump Coin or a Melania Coin is the same as the S&P 500 or investing in IBM, Microsoft, and Apple, right? So, I dont think any of the large, sophisticated players will get involved in meme coins, or if they do, theyll do it very smartly. And so I dont think it will affect the stability of financial markets. I think it might hurt a lot of retail users, the ones that will be on the losing end of the trade.
AIBC: What are the key security and privacy concerns in the cryptocurrency space?
dAnethan: One of the core values of crypto is privacy. So, I think that relative to any other industry, especially if youre thinking about Web2 and centralised models, the privacy concerns should always be higher because youre essentially trusting a large company that typically wants to monetise its user info. The only thing is that many hacks and scams happen in crypto because the whole responsibility for privacy and safety is on the user side of things. If youre doing everything right, you should never get hacked because the blockchain cannot.
I think as more and more people get involved, you will see more of those incidents. It wont be a fault of the blockchain in terms of architecture. It would be the user’s fault, but just because of ignorance or inexperience. You cannot share private keys, and you cannot interact with something that is not audited; you shouldnt click on links that you dont know or interact with people that you dont know online, people that reach out to you without you having to reach out to them first, and so on.
AIBC: How will meme coin culture impact the market in the coming year?
dAnethan: I want to be optimistic here, and it will onboard more users. Do you know what I mean? Its like the NFT craze of the 2020-2021 bull market where, you know, you talk to your grandmother, and she was trading an NFT, and youre like, huh, how did that happen, right? And its like if it gets cool enough and popular enough, it will get a lot of people to at least create a wallet, try some transactions, buy some Ethereum, buy some Solana, you know, do something to participate in that speculation.
Whenever you have a very explosive trend, it continues for a while, but you cannot sustain super big growth. You can do it for six months, you can do it for 12 months or 18 months, but at some point, people are like, you know, I didnt make as much money as I thought. I made a lot of money, but now Im not making as much money. And so, I should cool down and take my money off the table. And so, youll see some losers at the end of the trend and some winners maybe at the beginning, but thats my perspective.
AIBC: What is your prediction for the Asian crypto market dynamics?
dAnethan: Im going to give you a positive and a negative view on the market because I think on the positive side, I think a lot of jurisdictions, a lot of countries, again, are going to try to catch up to the US and show that theyre active. Youll have a lot of countries like Korea, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, or Singapore supporting the crypto space because, again, they want to maintain relevance relative to the other countries. And thats supportive of the crypto space. And theres a lot of traders in Asia. A lot of the trading activity in India, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia is very big, so its a thing. And so, I think that will be positive.
Im just talking about traditional markets in general. I think the theory is that Trump will keep or impose tariffs on the Asia side of things. Hes going to dampen enthusiasm. Thats on the market, but it still impacts how much money people have in the region. And if they feel a bit more fearful, theres less liquidity, theres less certainty. For example, its harder for them to get involved in speculative assets like new crypto projects. And so, Im positive for the crypto space. I think theres still going to be a lot of traders.
AIBC: How do you see the crypto market evolving in the next 6C12 months?
dAnethan: Im not allowed to give financial advice, so Im just sharing it from an opinion perspective. First, there are some dynamics that I think we will see unfold, which is, essentially, youre going to see a lot more celebrities and companies getting involved in crypto, and thats presumably going to be positive. It just means many more people are aware of those solutions and getting set up or involved with DeFi solutions. The other thing is I think many asset managers, sovereign wealth funds, and governments will have to start looking at crypto. And its not a question of whether they like it or not. Its just that if the US is doing it, and if you want to stay relevant, you need to have some activity, at least in my opinion, we really dont like it.
There is some strategic reserve, like a strategic Bitcoin reserve, as its been discussed for the US, but maybe other governments will follow suit. That would be just insane. So, if the US does that, many other countries will have to follow. And then theres no more price target. It can go up so much that you dont even know where to draw the line. AI coins are probably going to be very trendy. Im unsure if theres actual value or substance behind those tokens. Still, I think its a narrative that people will pile into because, in 2025, AI is the thing, and if crypto becomes the thing, then some people will put two and two together and do an AI crypto.
This article was first published on on 3 February 2025.
