Solana surges 15% on launch of Trump-themed meme coin, ether falls

Solana’s SOL token rocketed after a meme coin linked to President-elect Donald Trump launched on the popular blockchain network.

The price of SOL rose more than 15% to $254.71 on Saturday, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier, it surged nearly 23%. Ether, one of its main competitors, fell 7%.

The moves began late Friday after the launch of a new meme coin announced on Trump’s social media accounts and issued on the Solana blockchain. “Official Trump” (TRUMP) has attracted more than $5 billion since then to become the largest meme coin on the Solana network, according to CoinGecko.

That move came ahead of Trump’s inauguration Monday, which is widely expected to usher in a new era of innovation and productivity in the crypto industry, and on the day crypto villain Gary Gensler ended his term as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Solana is the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, excluding stablecoins. It was created in 2020 as a faster and cheaper alternative to Ethereum and now hosts some of the most popular meme coins like dogwifhat and Pudgy Penguins, as well as decentralized finance (DeFi) and gaming projects.

The token has become so popular asset managers are seeking to issue exchange traded funds tracking its price. The decision deadline for potential ETFs from Bitwise, VanEck, 21Shares and Canary is approaching Jan. 25. ProShares on Friday evening also filed for four different ETFs based on SOL. If approved this year, SOL ETFs may only attract a fraction of the assets that flowed into bitcoin ETFs in their first year of trading, according to JPMorgan.

SOL gained 85% in 2024. It’s now about 4% off its all-time high of $264.56, from Nov. 22.

The latest Trump crypto project

The “Official Trump” coin was announced on the President-elect’s X and Truth Social accounts late Friday night, the same evening as the Crypto Ball, a celebration of his return to the White House held by crypto industry leaders in Washington D.C.

It began trading at about 10:40 p.m. ET Friday at a price of $4.29 and has since rocketed 604% to $30.22, according to CoinGecko data.

The meme coin is the latest cryptocurrency project to come out of team Trump – which has also launched two NFT collections – Trump Digital Trading Cards on the Polygon blockchain and Trump Bitcoin Digital Trading Cards on the Bitcoin network – as well as the DeFi platform World Liberty Financial on the Ethereum network.

Memes’ role in internet culture reflects the origins, culture and permissionless nature of the crypto industry. That can give them more staying power than a meme stock might — the original meme coin and one of the oldest cryptocurrencies, dogecoin, is the seventh largest cryptocurrency by market cap — but they’re widely viewed as purely speculative and often lacking intrinsic value.

A disclaimer on the new coin’s website says it is “intended to function as an expression of support for, and engagement with, the ideals and beliefs embodied by the symbol ‘$TRUMP’ and the associated artwork, and … not intended to be, or to be the subject of, an investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any type.”