On the evening of Donald Trump’s inauguration, his wife, Melania, launched her own cryptocurrency, ‘$Melania’.
Just hours before she is due to become the First Lady of America, she posted on X: “The Official Melania Meme is live! You can buy $MELANIA now.”
The rollout of $Melania follows the release of the incoming president’s new meme coin, $Trump. On Friday night, Mr Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social: “My NEW Official Trump Meme is HERE! It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING!”
The website says some 200 million digital tokens have already been issued, and another 800 million are set to be released in the next three years.
Meme coins are a cryptocurrency named after often trending characters, people, animals or artwork.
Both the $Trump and $Melania coins have skyrocketed in value since launching, yet are seeing volatile trade.
According to the CoinMarketCap website, Mr Trump’s meme coin has a total market valuation of about $12bn (£9.8bn), and the $Melania cryptocurrency stands at just over $2bn.
President Trump’s coin tripled in price to more than $70 (£57) after its launch, but when his wife launched $MELANIA, it briefly tanked the value of $TRUMP. Mr Trump’s coin is now selling for around $53 (£43) while $MELANIA is selling for around $11 (£9).
During his first term of presidency, Mr Trump was initially critical of cryptocurrency, but it has now come full circle. During his campaign to become the 47th US president, he promised to turn the US into the “crypto capital” of the world.
He has also suggested that he would issue an executive order to make crypto a policy priority, which would contrast with the Biden administration, which raised concerns over the crypto industry due to money laundering and fraud.
Speaking to Fox Business last year, the incoming president also floated the idea of using Bitcoin to “pay off the $35 trillion” US national debt.
He said: “Hand them a little crypto check, right? We’ll hand them a little bitcoin and wipe out our $35 trillion.”
