Donald Trump’s wife Melania launches her own rival cryptocurrency — tanking the price of her husband’s coin by 50%

Melania Trump, wife of United States President-elect Donald Trump and soon-to-be First Lady, launched her own meme coin, $MELANIA, early today, January 20 (late Sunday US time). The move briefly tanked her husband's meme coin, $TRUMP, by 50 per cent, garnering traffic from the next President's fans and crypto enthusiasts.

Melania Trump posted the announcements across social media just as Donald Trump was about to start a rally in Washington celebrating his inauguration, declaring: “The official Melania Meme is live! You can buy $MELANIA now.”

Melania Tanks Donald Trump's Crypto Coin By 50%

Notably, $MELANIA diverted investments away from Melania Trump's husband's crypto offering, $TRUMP, with the value nosediving by 50 per cent, as per reports.

Donald Trump's token fell to $41 each before rising again. At the time of writing, $TRUMP was trading at $47 with a market cap of $9.82 billion, an 83 per cent jump from the previous day, according to data on Coinmarketcap.

$MELANIA was trading for $0.1702 each—a meteoric 3,035.16 per cent rise— with a market cap of $7.31 million at 7 am on January 20 (IST).

Donald Trump Pushes Crypto At Rally

Speaking at his rally, Trump called these moves “all investments,” adding that “Bitcoin has shattered one record after another.” 

Thanks to the couple's own cryptocurrency coins, Trump could already be the richest man in the world.

According to CoinGecko, on paper, the Trump tokens in the market had a total trading value of nearly $13 billion before $MELANIA launched and were, until that time, the 19th most valuable form of crypto in the world.

Regarding ownership of the coins, Trump affiliates appear to control 800 million tokens besides the 200 million already released, which could unlock potential for as much as $51 billion, the CoinGecko report added.

Reactions to $TRUMP and $MELANIA Divided

While fans and crypto enthusiasts have hailed Donald Trump and his family's “business savvy” in making crypto decisions, critics have called into question the ethics and even conflict of interest arising from the assets.

Trump has promised to usher in crypto-friendly regulations and has nominated a host of pro-crypto names to key positions in his administration.

(With inputs from Agencies)