"My new official Trump meme is here!”, wrote Trump on his social media platform Truth Social and on X on Saturday, writes Dagens industri.
The cryptocurrency – a so-called meme coin linked to the Solana blockchain network – is called $Trump.
Immediately after the post on X, many users wondered if Trump's account had been hacked. Within the crypto world, several people have also questioned the authenticity, but since both Trump and his son Eric Trump have now written about the currency, the concerns have been dampened.
The cryptocurrency has been released in an edition of 200 million for the general public, according to Trump's X post. An additional 800 million digital tokens will be released within three years.
According to the news agency Bloomberg, they are now owned by Trump-controlled entities.
Already over the weekend, the cryptocurrency has surged several hundred percent, from 6.24 dollars to 68.49 dollars, according to the site Coinmarketcap.
According to Bloomberg, people close to Trump may earn large sums of money from the cryptocurrency.
Several organizations have criticized the launch, including that the Trump family becomes more connected to an industry that Trump's administration is set to regulate.
