Trump’s Memecoin Launch Boosts Solana’s Price, TVL, and ETF Odds
The launch of Donald Trump’s official memecoin on the Solana blockchain has significantly impacted the cryptocurrency’s price, trading volume, and even the likelihood of a Solana-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) being launched.
Trump’s endorsement of Solana for his memecoin has sparked considerable interest in Solana (SOL), with the cryptocurrency seeing a price surge of over 23% since the announcement. This has helped push the total value locked (TVL) in the Solana network to over $12 billion, marking a new all-time high, according to DeFiLlama data. This is the first time since the collapse of FTX that Solana’s TVL has hit such levels.
The value locked in Solana’s smart contracts has been steadily climbing since the start of 2024, reaching over 45 million SOL, a level not seen since August 2022, before the FTX downfall. FTX’s co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried was a prominent supporter of Solana, and the network’s rebound has been seen as a positive sign for its future.
Trump’s memecoin, named $TRUMP, was coordinated by CIC Digital LLC, a Trump-affiliated entity, and Fight Fight Fight LLC. These entities together control 80% of the token’s supply, which will be released over the next three years. The token has taken the crypto space by storm, reaching the third-largest memecoin ranking by market cap, just behind Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB).
The launch has led to a trading frenzy on Solana’s decentralized exchanges, with protocols like Raydium surpassing Tether in daily fee generation. The decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Moonshot, featured on Trump’s memecoin website, reported nearly $400 million in 12-hour trading volume, along with onboarding over 200,000 new users onto the network.
The memecoin’s release has also sparked optimism for a potential Solana spot ETF. Traders on Polymarket increased the probability of such an ETF launching by July 31 from 43% to 61%, as the momentum around Solana grows.
Remarkably, the surge in activity came during the weekend, typically a quieter time for trading, highlighting that speculative interest in the Solana ecosystem could continue throughout the week.
This launch of Trump’s memecoin could also signal a shift in the U.S. government’s stance on cryptocurrency, as it gains legitimacy with the backing of the President of the world’s largest economy. Many in the crypto space see this as a sign of a more permissive innovation policy.
“This rollout marks a significant shift in U.S. fintech policy towards much more permissive innovation,” said Erik Voorhees, founder of Shapeshifter and crypto veteran. The success of Trump’s memecoin on Solana could continue to fuel interest in the network and its future developments.
