Looks like Donald Trump is the latest star of the crypto world.
Following a failed assassination attempt last week, the Republican presidential hopeful's survival sparked a boom in appetite for risk assets—like meme stocks—and a surge in crypto trading.
This is because Trump may very well be the Wall Street favorite. Silicon Valley superstars and crypto bigwigs are betting that the ex-president and right-wing populist will now win—and they're putting serious money into the cause.
Donald Trump and Bitcoin: From 'Not a Fan' to Crypto President—With His Own Meme Coin
Bitcoin-friendly Donald Trump won the election in November, and was inaugurated in January as the 47th President of the United States of America. But ahead of being formally sworn in, the commander in chief dropped a meme coin. Yes, you read that right. Running on the Solana network, the TRUMP token at one point had a market cap of $14 billion. It’s since plunged to $2.9 billion but the move signaled the new President’s growing enthusiasm for the digital asset space after campaigning to help Bit...
As a result, digital asset traders appear to be hungry for the riskiest crypto craze of them all: meme coins.
The biggest winner in the digital asset market now is Solana-based Popcat, which is up by 79% in seven days and now trading for $0.9053, according to CoinGecko data.
Next up, another Solana-based token surged: the popular meme Dogwifhat, which has risen 57% over the past week to touch $2.51.
And Ethereum-based Pepe is the third biggest gainer of the week, having shot up by 39% over the same period. It's now priced at $0.00001227, CoinGecko shows.
Cats In, Dogs and Frogs Out: Meme Coin Meta May Be Shifting
Every dog has its day. But now it's the cats' time to shine. Over the past seven days, cat-themed tokens are the biggest gainers among the major crypto categories as defined by CoinGecko. Climbing 40% during the span, cat-themed coins have outperformed dog and frog meme coins, as well as more serious categories like layer-1 blockchain coins and DeFi protocols. Leading the charge is Keyboard Cat (KEYCAT) on Ethereum layer-2 network Base, which is up 96%, while Solana’s Michi (MICHI) similarly so...
Among major tokens, Solana—the fifth biggest digital coin—has also jumped significantly, with traders' renewed appetite for risk pushing it up by 23% in seven days. The Ethereum-competitor is now trading hands for $$170.05.
Elsewhere, Ethereum, the second biggest digital asset, has risen in value. It's trading 12% higher than this time last week, and entered the weekend priced at $3,504 per coin. After sources confirmed to Decrypt that the long-awaited Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) would hit stock exchanges by Tuesday, the date was affirmed by Cboe yesterday.
Of the other top coins and tokens, many eyes were on XRP, which jumped by over 18% to $0.58 thanks to rumors that fintech giant Ripple Labs was nearing a settlement agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It's one of the best performers of the week of the largest market cap assets.
And the biggest digital coin, Bitcoin, is up significantly too: The so-called "digital gold" has risen 15% over the past seven days, ending the week trading at $66,570.
On Friday, it hit its highest price in a month, reaching $67,000 per coin as fears subsided over the German government's Bitcoin liquidations and Mt. Gox repayments. With Trump scheduled to speak at the Bitcoin Conference next week, it could mean another upswing for BTC.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
