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Donald Trump's Official Token Surges 25%, Some Observers See It as Bet on His Presidency
Token prices zoomed 25% in the past 24 hours, beating gains in bitcoin and other majors to reverse losses from earlier in the week.
Updated Jan 22, 2025, 8:50 a.m. Published Jan 22, 2025, 7:45 a.m.
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What to know:
- TRUMP memecoin riches have spurred billions of dollars for newly sworn-in U.S. President Donald Trump.
- It can act as a beta bet of his term, some observers say.
TRUMP memecoin riches have spurred billions of dollars for the newly sworn-in U.S. President Donald Trump, an amount he termed as “peanuts” compared to corporate bigwigs in his first address of the token since launch.
"I don't know much about it other than when I launched it. I heard it was successful,” Trump said in a press conference on Tuesday when asked by a reporter. “Where is it today? Several billion?
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“That's peanuts for these guys,” he added, referring to the networth of other businessmen in the room that included SoftBank's Masayoshi Son, OpenAI's Sam Altman and Oracle's Larry Ellison.
BREAKING: @realDonaldTrump LEARNS THAT HE MADE SEVERAL BILLION DOLLARS WITH THE MEMECOIN HE LAUNCHED - SAYS THAT IT’S PEANUTS
— DEGEN NEWS (@DegenerateNews) January 21, 2025
pic.twitter.com/ZaQAMvVLlB
Token prices zoomed 25% in the past 24 hours, beating gains in bitcoin and other majors, to reverse losses from earlier in the week. It sits at an $8 billion market capitalization as of Wednesday morning, up nearly 900% since going live.
Trump also unveiled a $500 billion joint venture termed Stargate at the event, which aims to build data centers in Texas and would invest in AI infrastructure.
Meanwhile, some see TRUMP as a bet on the Republican’s popularity and policies in his term, with ripple effects on how it may shape up Web3 and memecoin markets.
“Longer term, TRUMP coin could act as a barometer for public sentiment towards Trump’s presidency,” Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands told CoinDesk in a message. “Culture memes and tokens are essentially a highly variable public polymarket of culture and zeitgeist, and we’ve seen this play out accordingly.”
“(However) If the initiative is perceived as a cash grab without further engagement, we may well see a crypto chill for meme tokens, potentially draining attention and liquidity out of the meme space. How the TRUMP token is handled is likely to have a ripple effect on trust and reputation for the entire crypto and Web3 industry,” Siu added.
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KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
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Kevin O'Leary says power is now more valuable than bitcoin
"Shark Tank" investor Kevin O'Leary is pivoting his crypto strategy from tokens to energy infrastructure, declaring that power generation is now the real prize.
What to know:
The big pivot: O'Leary has moved capital away from smaller tokens to focus on physical infrastructure like land, power, and copper.
- He believes power is now "more valuable than bitcoin" and has secured significant land deals with stranded natural gas in Alberta and the U.S.
- His thesis is driven by the massive energy needs of bitcoin mining and AI, noting that entities controlling power can serve either market.
- He advises investors to look at copper and gold, noting copper prices have nearly quadrupled for his projects in the last 18 months.
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