Donald Trump Official $TRUMP Meme Coin Hits $15B Valuation

Donald Trump Official $TRUMP Meme Coin Hits $15B Valuation

Donald Trump launched an official $TRUMP meme coin on Friday, reaching a market cap of $15 billion by Sunday noon, according to Forbes. Hosted on the Solana blockchain, the token's price surged over 300%, with a 24-hour trading volume of $28.86 billion and 790,000+ holders, as reported by Solscan.

Crypto journalist Coffeezilla criticized the project in a Saturday video on his voidzilla YouTube channel, calling it “historic in its stupidity and its grift,” and noting that 80% of the token supply is controlled by Trump-affiliated entities. He added, “The Trump coin is a zero-sum game, where the last person holding loses while insiders extract 80% of the value.”

Balaji Srinivasan, ex-CTO of Coinbase, suggested ways to add utility to the token, such as hosting token-gated offline events or creating exclusive online forums for holders. He also noted that the token’s holder list, with nearly a million entities, could be leveraged for targeted political messaging or community engagement, effectively acting as an "onchain email list."

As a bonus to the weekend events, World Liberty Financial, another crypto project backed by the Trump family and hosted on Ethereum, recently purchased 6,041 $ETH for approximately $20 million USDC.

‍

Vitalik Buterin Announces Ethereum Leadership Overhaul

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin revealed "large changes" to the Ethereum Foundation’s leadership in a post on X, aiming to improve technical expertise, communication, and support for developers. Buterin emphasized that the foundation’s core mission of neutrality and decentralization remains unchanged, rejecting calls for aggressive political lobbying.

This announcement follows criticism of the foundation’s direction, including a suggestion from co-founder Joseph Lubin to replace Executive Director Aya Miyaguchi with Danny Ryan and Jerome de Tychey as co-leaders. "We are now in a very different kind of environment in our industry," Lubin wrote, urging for leadership that matches the current phase of crypto.

‍

Ethereum Developers Schedule March Launch for Pectra

In a more positive development for Ethereum, developers have finalized a timeline for the highly anticipated Pectra upgrade, scheduled for March 2025. Combining eight Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), the upgrade introduces wallet programmability via EIP-7702 and expands validator staking limits from 32 to 2,048 ETH under EIP-7251.

Pectra will undergo testing on Sepolia and Holesky test networks throughout February, with a mainnet launch targeted for early to mid-March. This marks Ethereum’s first major upgrade since 2024’s Dencun (Cancun-Deneb), though developers scaled back initial plans for Pectra, splitting the ambitious package into two phases.

‍

Crypto Industry Submits Wave of ETF Filings as Gensler Exits

With SEC Chair Gary Gensler stepping down on January 20, crypto has flooded the commission with ETF filings. ProShares submitted applications for Solana futures ETFs, while CoinShares filed for a digital asset ETF. Volatility Shares and Tidal DeFi also joined the party, with filings targeting XRP futures and crypto ecosystem debt instruments, respectively.

“Gensler wasn’t even out of the building for five minutes, and the ETF industry unloaded a massive crypto filing frenzy,” said senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas. The filings anticipate a regulatory shift under President-elect Trump, who is expected to adopt a more crypto-friendly stance. Other firms like Bitwise and WisdomTree have also filed applications for spot ETFs.

‍

Data of the Day

Bitcoin mining company MARA honored President-elect Donald Trump by embedding his portrait in Bitcoin block 879,613. The inscription also includes the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution, permanently stored on the blockchain via MARA's proprietary mining pool. "Bitcoin's commitment to freedom aligns with America's eternal principles," the company said in a statement.

Through its control over which transactions are processed, MARA purposefully arranged transaction data to correspond with specific colors, forming the portrait, akin to a mosaic crafted from precise data points.

‍

More Breaking News

• MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor hinted at an 11th consecutive week of Bitcoin purchase, with holdings now valued at $47.3 billion.
• Hyperliquid will begin holding a diverse set of native assets, starting with 3M PURR, with governance gradually taking over asset inclusion decisions.
• Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson emphasized integrating Bitcoin into its DeFi ecosystem and hinted at a potential Chainlink collaboration.
• Phantom Wallet raised $150 million at a $3 billion valuation, aiming to accelerate crypto adoption and expand as a finance platform.
• Trump-backed World Liberty Financial plans to acquire Tron’s TRX tokens, deepening ties with Justin Sun's blockchain.
• Crypto.com secured in-principle approval for a MiCA license, paving the way for EU-wide services under the new regulatory framework.
• Wintermute predicted nations like China and Europe will follow the US in creating Bitcoin reserves as crypto integrates into TradFi.

For the latest updates on digital asset markets, follow us on X @Datawalletcom.