Donald Trump launches his own cryptocurrency, already valued at several billion dollars

A crypto named Donald Trump. The American president-elect announced, on the night of Friday to Saturday, the launch of his own cryptocurrency, which bears his name, provoking a purchasing fever which in a few hours increased its overall valuation to several billion dollars. In a message posted on his Truth Social network as well as on X (formerly Twitter), the president-elect presented this new digital currency as a “meme coin”.

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6 billion dollars in capitalization

During the hours following the launch of Trump, the crypto community questioned the legitimacy of this new asset and its link to Donald Trump, with some fearing a scam, as the world of “meme coins” has experienced many. But the fact that the announcement messages were posted on the president-elect's official accounts and that one of the companies behind the project, CIC Digital LLC, has already been used by Donald Trump to sell NFTs (Non Fungible Token, digital assets) ended up reassuring the market.

The latter is a cryptocurrency intended to capitalize on popular enthusiasm around a personality, a movement or a viral phenomenon on the internet. The “meme coin” has no economic or transactional utility and is often identified as a purely speculative asset. “This Trump Meme Celebrates a Leader Who Never Backs Down, No Matter the Situation”explains the project's official website, referring to the assassination attempt on the Republican candidate last July.

What followed was a surge which caused the value of the digital currency to increase, bringing the total capitalization of units in circulation to nearly 6 billion dollars. Donald Trump or the company leading the launch, Fight Fight Fight LLC, have not communicated on the possible product generated by the operation for its creators. Asked by AFP, the group did not respond. The official website states that 200 million tokens (units) of this currency have been released to the market, with Fight Fight Fight planning to add another 800 million within three years.

The creators of this new digital asset, including Donald Trump, control all of the tokens not yet marketed, which have a theoretical value of around $24 billion at current prices. Initially opposed to cryptocurrencies, Donald Trump made a radical turnaround during his recent presidential campaign, to the point of becoming their champion. He promised to promote the development of this sector, in particular through reduced regulation. Before the creation of its own digital currency, entrepreneurs associated with Donald Trump had put a cryptocurrency platform online, called World Liberty Financial, in mid-October.