Lawmakers and advocates in Washington are on the brink of taking major steps that could help legitimize crypto. Republicans are poised to form new subcommittees and working groups on Capitol Hill that will focus on digital assets and they have pledged to pass a slate of industry-friendly legislation, including a crypto-backed regulatory overhaul that would shield firms from the enforcement crackdown they faced during the Biden years.
Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday. Trump’s son, Eric Trump, touted the coin on X Saturday, writing that he is “extremely proud of what we continue to accomplish in crypto.”
“We are just getting started!” he wrote.
Trump’s memecoin has taken off since debuting late Friday night. By 6:15 p.m. ET on Sunday, the token had risen to $44.95 — making it the 24th most valuable token in the world with a fully diluted value of more than $45 billion, according to CoinGecko, which tracks crypto data. And major crypto exchanges like Coinbase and Binance were moving to add it onto their platforms. Kraken, another major crypto trading venue, added the memecoin for trading Saturday afternoon.
The Trump push into memecoins accelerated Sunday when Melania Trump announced on social media her own, called MELANIA. Trump’s token fell in trading shortly thereafter.
Memecoins have long traded in crypto markets, with Dogecoin perhaps the best-known example. Launched as a joke, the crypto has exploded in popularity over the years, with its price often riding on the whims of its backers — the best known of which is Elon Musk.
Yet, many others have fallen flat. And while the Securities and Exchange Commission has waged a sweeping crusade against many of the crypto market’s biggest players, the Wall Street regulator has largely stayed away from the high-flying corner of crypto where memecoins trade, given questions about its authority over the tokens, said Marc Fagel, a former SEC official who previously led its San Francisco office.
“Is [it] healthy to have so much money tied up in what are essentially pyramid schemes?” Fagel said. “Of course not. But what are the tools to prevent that? We don’t have a lot of legal tools to prevent people from doing things that are really dumb with their money.”