Donald Trump's official meme coin fueled new speculative activity in the Solana ecosystem almost overnight.
Multiple large tokens based on Solana soared on Saturday, with the blockchain's native SOL token hitting $275 as the incoming US president endorsed a new Trump token based on Solana on Friday night, calling it the “official” meme coin. A new high was recorded.
As CoinDesk reported on Saturday, the selection of Solana as the issuing network has increased demand and sentiment for the SOL token.
SOL's trading volume soared from $3 billion on Thursday to more than $26 billion in the past 24 hours, with Saturday's move pushing the weekly gain to more than 46%.
This is an increase of nearly 3,000% since hitting a three-year low of $9 in December 2022 following the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its prominent backer Sam Bankman Freed. Feelings toward Mr. Solana soured.
President Trump's official meme coin was launched on the Solana blockchain late Friday US time by a team including ecosystem giants Jupiter and Meteora. The price of Jupiter’s JUP token has increased by 30% in the past 24 hours.
According to the BBC, the token launch was coordinated by CIC Digital LLC, an affiliate of the Trump Organization, and the newly formed company Fight Fight Fight LLC. Both companies own 80% of the tokens, which have a vesting period of more than three years, so it's unclear how much profit Trump will make from the venture.
Trump's price goes from a few cents to $14 in less than six hours amid confusion over whether the token is actually backed by Trump or whether someone hacked Trump's account and issued a fake token. It skyrocketed.
It was trading above $44 in the Asian afternoon hours on Sunday, and has gained listings on prominent exchanges Coinbase and Binance, as well as several futures products. In terms of market capitalization, it is the second meme coin after Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB), and is Flipping Pepecoin (PEPE).