Bitcoin’s (BTC-USD) price headed to new all-time highs on Monday, as crypto investors cheered incoming president Donald Trump and his pro-crypto administration. The moves for the digital asset came following the launch of two memecoins by Trump and the incoming first lady Melania.
Friday saw the Trump administration throw a glitzy inauguration party for crypto industry professionals, for which some attendees paid as much as $100,000 on VIP tickets. The event included performances from the likes of Snoop Dogg.
As it kicked off in Washington DC, so did trading for a token with the ticker $TRUMP — a memecoin launched on the Solana blockchain which quickly amassed billions of dollars in backing.
“My NEW Official Trump Meme is HERE! It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday.
A second memecoin, $MELANIA was also launched on Sunday night.
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The digital tokens have sparked criticism from those in the crypto industry that the president-elect, due to be sworn in later on today, is exploiting his supporters for financial gain. Trump’s family business owns stakes in both digital assets.
Trading has already been volatile: on Friday, $TRUMP went from around $6 to $75 in a matter of hours. With the subsequent launch of $MELANIA, the price dipped by about half, wiping $7bn in value as people sold.
As of 11:51:00 UTC. Market open.
Meanwhile, bitcoin was trading at around $108,000 by mid-morning in London on Monday, up 2.9% on the previous session. Ethereum (ETH-USD), the second biggest cryptocurrency by market cap headed 5.5% higher to trade around $3,350.
During the election cycle, Trump made several pledges in line with boosting the crypto industry. One such pledge was to build a national bitcoin reserve for the US.
He also vowed to sack the crypto critical US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler, with Paul Atkins, CEO of Patomak Partners and a former SEC commissioner, lined up to replace him. Atkins is known as a friend of the crypto industry and will likely be a softer touch on regulation.
Meanwhile, Trump lined up former PayPal (PYPL) executive David Sacks as the first crypto and AI tsar. Sacks has previously argued that opening the doors to crypto adoption would spur on growth and encourage innovation, a move since endorsed by Coinbase (COIN) boss Brian Armstrong.
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Armstrong has had two private meetings with Trump so far, according to people familiar with those meetings. Once before the election and once after. Since Trump was elected in November, the Coinbase share price has gone from $190 to nearly $300.
