Bitcoin and Trump meme slide after inauguration

News FetcherJanuary 21, 2025

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Bitcoin and Trump meme slide after inauguration

Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies and even a newly minted token named after Donald Trump fell on Tuesday, after the US president’s first set of policies after the inauguration made no mention of this asset class.

Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, hit a record high of $109,071 on Monday when Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States, but later pared those gains and last traded at $101,705.40.

The Trump-themed meme coin, which launched on Friday evening, last traded at $34.4, according to cryptocurrency price tracking website CoinGecko. This represents half of Monday’s peak price of $74.59, when the valuation topped $14 billion. The coin was initially priced around $6.5 when it was launched.

Trump cryptocurrency:Trump’s new coin soared on his first day in office, and soared other cryptocurrency tokens

Trump’s inauguration speech on Monday was accompanied by a host of executive orders and plans related to trade tariffs, immigration, energy deregulation and even a postponement of the popular Chinese short-video app TikTok.

But he did not mention cryptocurrencies, disappointing an industry that had been excited for months that the crypto-friendly president would usher in a radical change in US policies toward the volatile asset class.

“I think there is a chance in the short term that this will be a news selling event,” said Matthew Dibb, chief investment officer at crypto asset manager Astronaut Capital, adding that crypto investors were anticipating some enforcement action being brought forward. During Trump’s first day in office.

“The market has some big expectations about Bitcoin’s strategic reserve and the easing of regulations around the digital asset, but these developments will likely be drip-fed over a series of months rather than days. Bitcoin has already pulled back…we now expect more,” Depp said. “There is a lot of volatility here and there is likely to be selling.”

Cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds were also sold off. The ChinaAMC bitcoin ETF 83042.HK fell nearly 6%.

However, Trump has already begun making personnel changes that the industry finds encouraging.

He has appointed Mark Ueda, a Republican member of the SEC, to be acting head of the agency and plans to nominate former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins to run the agency on a permanent basis.

Atkins is widely expected to end a cryptocurrency crackdown led by Gary Gensler, the Democratic SEC chairman for former President Joe Biden, and Ueda criticized the SEC for failing to provide guidance on how to register cryptocurrency companies with the agency.

Top Republican officials at the Securities and Exchange Commission are preparing to begin overhauling the agency’s cryptocurrency policies, perhaps as early as next week, three people familiar with the matter said.

Conflict of interest

Meanwhile, ethics experts and industry insiders said Trump’s release of the $TRUMP token and the $MELANIA token to First Lady Melania Trump, shortly before his inauguration, creates new concerns about conflicts of interest.

Eighty percent of Trump Coin tokens are owned by CIC Digital, a subsidiary of Trump’s business, and another entity called Fight, Fight, Fight, according to its website.

The companies said they are not investments or securities but “an expression of support and engagement with the ideals and beliefs embodied by the symbol ‘$TRUMP’.”