Bitcoin surged to a historic high above $109,000, buoyed by market enthusiasm surrounding the inauguration of incoming U.S. President Donald Trump and the debut of two meme cryptocurrencies introduced by the Trump family. The flagship cryptocurrency was last recorded at $106,622.54, nearing its intraday peak of $109,350.72 after dipping below $100,000 on Sunday. Over the weekend, the “Official Trump” meme coin, launched by President Trump, captured significant market attention.
It achieved a market cap of $10.6 billion, rising more than 659% since its debut on Friday. However, the coin saw a 27% pullback after First Lady Melania Trump introduced her own cryptocurrency, “Melania Meme,” on Sunday. The latter quickly gained traction with a $1.3 billion market cap and a 14% price increase, generating $7.3 billion in trading volume over the past day. By comparison, the Trump meme coin recorded $31 billion in trading activity.
Despite their speculative nature, the meme coins bolstered optimism about the incoming administration’s approach to cryptocurrency. Analysts interpret the launches as a signal of President Trump’s commitment to fostering the burgeoning crypto industry. Joel Kruger, a market strategist at LMAX, remarked that the move underscores the administration’s intent to support the crypto market, even extending validation to the volatile realm of meme coins. “This is a clear message of how crypto-friendly this administration aims to be,” Kruger added.
Noelle Acheson, economist and author of Crypto is Macro Now, described the meme coin launches as a net positive for market sentiment, highlighting their symbolic significance in promoting innovation and new markets. Speculation has also intensified that President Trump may declare cryptocurrency a national priority, further bolstering investor confidence. Gracy Chen, CEO of crypto exchange Bitget, noted that such expectations are contributing more to Bitcoin’s price rally than the meme coins themselves. She argued that the capital shift to these new tokens may have tempered Bitcoin’s potential gains.
Meanwhile, the broader cryptocurrency market displayed mixed performance. The CoinDesk 20 index declined by 1% on Monday and showed marginal growth since the weekend. Solana’s native token dropped more than 7% on Monday, despite a 15% rise since Saturday, partly benefiting from the Trump meme coin launch on its network. Ethereum’s Ether experienced a 5% loss over the same period.
Bitcoin’s record-breaking momentum has sparked predictions of further growth. LMAX’s Kruger suggested the cryptocurrency could extend its rally to $130,000 in the near term, driven by continued market optimism and policy support from the incoming administration. – By CryptoWire News Desk.