First Lady Melania Launches Her Own Meme Coin – But Can it Mirror $Trump’s Glow?

The cryptocurrency industry started this year on the right foot. Bitcoin reached an unprecedented $109K in January, fueled by investor optimism that the newly elected president would positively influence the crypto sector. This surge extended to the broader crypto market, where prices rose sharply and held steady long enough for investors to reap substantial profits. However, prices have since started to falter, with some cryptos losing the interest of the broader investor category. Nevertheless, investors are keeping an eye out for what is about to happen within the sector now that cryptocurrency makes all the headlines. The attention remains focused on price swings and smaller-cap cryptos, for they’ve demonstrated their potential to yield benefits. For instance, the current Ethereum price is closely monitored as it’s the second-largest crypto after Bitcoin in terms of market cap and popularity. Fresh news is bound to impact crypto dynamics further, with particular focus on the Trump family’s foray into crypto through the launch of two crypto meme coins.

While President Trump was a crypto critic during his first term, his approach has taken an unexpected turn. He now supports decentralized finance, rekindling hope among crypto enthusiasts that the new administration will drive progress within the industry.

After Trump’s foray into crypto, Melania Trump has broken into the crypto segment, too, making the launch of the $Melania meme coin public during a night in Italy. The First Lady described the development as a symbol of support. So, what do we know about Melania Trump’s project? What are meme coins, and how can this release impact the broader crypto stage?

How it All Began

A few hours after Melania Trump made the meme coin’s release public, the crypto’s value skyrocketed to $12, marking an astonishing rise of thousands of percentage points— similar to the whopping 16,000% rise recorded by $Trump. Nevertheless, in the hours that followed, $Melania triggered a ripple effect. $Trump’s price lost 40% from its high of $72, following a recovery to $55 quite rapidly. A significant part of investors called out the family for launching two cryptocurrencies, while others dropped their investments in $Trump as they could anticipate further losses.

At the time of writing, the two cryptos’ combined market cap is around $13BN. Nevertheless, when unreleased tokens are taken into account, this figure climbs to $68BN.

Understanding Meme Coins

As with every emerging technology, appropriating the fundamentals may take some time and experience, which is why we’re breaking meme coins down to you. This type of cryptocurrency is relatively young, having been coined when the leading meme coin, DogeCoin, broke into the market as a subtle mockery of Bitcoin. It quickly rose to global prominence, being backed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and a quietly rising community of advocates.

These represent investments that can spike to unprecedented heights or fall into the darkness shortly after their release.

Meme coins’ value isn’t given by the same economic fundamentals that determine the value of fiat money, for instance. Instead, meme coins can fluctuate dramatically depending on how social media sees them, what celebrities endorse them, and how the overall investor feeling is at a given moment.

When it comes to Donald Trump’s launch, the Trump Digital Trading Cards reflect the crypto’s wildly fluctuating—and thus speculative—nature. The cards lost almost 77% of their original value, disclosing how quickly the value of the negligent investor’s portfolio can drop. At the moment, these coins lack a real-world purpose—unlike other cryptos, like Ethereum and Bitcoin. However, some investors still hope they might become valuable down the road, betting on popularity instead of financial strengths.

Understanding the $Melania Token

The $Melania token is built on the Solana blockchain just like her husband’s coin is. Around 450K investors were registered to hold the asset during the last research from a tracking platform for Solana-related crypto tokens. The $Melania crypto started with 162MN tokens and needed a year to get to 1BN. After costing an initial $7, the coin shortly breached the $9 mark. As expected, the $TRUMP coin made more splashes than his wife’s and many other political meme coins. It has managed to get to around $50 and establish a market capitalization of approximately $10BN. Soon after the $Melania launch, Donald Trump’s token came out on top as the dominant player between the two and among all the other cryptos on Soalna in terms of market capitalization. The Trump coin led the meme coins by valuations, while Melania Trump’s token secured the fourth place in the ranking.

The bulk of these tokens are owned by companies associated with the first lady of the U.S. As far as it’s known, the plan involves slowly launching tokens in the market, and as they’re being sold, the demand aspired to be created is hoped to bring the asset’s value up. However, it’s important to remember that it’s impossible to predict the future value because it depends on the crypto’s market price at the selling time.

The Trump family already yields returns as each fee-taking transaction sends money directly to the supporting companies, offering an income stream from the crypto’s trading activity.

What About the Impact on Oher Meme Coins?

The launch of $Trump and $Melania triggered ripple effects in the crypto world. For instance, they pushed Solana’s SOL to new heights—more precisely, over the $300 price point. This rise demonstrates how meme coins can influence broader market dynamics.

XRP also registered massive growth, with charts suggesting a growth of over 40% at the time of writing. Notably, the favoring context is also due to hints of a more flexible approach from the SEC and the possibility of new exchange-traded funds (ETFs) products based on a broader crypto spectrum.

Ending Note

This suggests how political and regulatory sentiment can directly impact cryptocurrency valuations, producing effects that are quickly seen in investors’ portfolios. The important takeaway is that for this and many other safety-centric reasons, you want to invest mindfully and not spend more than you can afford to lose.