Half of TRUMP and MELANIA memecoin holders never bought a 'Solana altcoin' before: Chainalysis

Approximately 50% of Official Trump and Melania memecoin holders had never bought a “Solana altcoin” before — Solana-based tokens other than SOL or stablecoins — according to data from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.

The high-profile and controversial launch of Donald Trump’s official Solana-based memecoin, TRUMP, came during the premiere Crypto Ball in Washington on Friday night ahead of his inauguration as President on Monday.

Some 46.5% of buyers only created their wallets on the day they purchased the tokens, per Chainalysis. The firm identified most wallets holding TRUMP and MELANIA as likely being retail, with over 80% of the addresses holding under $1,000 worth of assets and 70% under $100.

In terms of profit, over 77% of wallets that hold TRUMP have made losses or earned less than $100 as of Jan. 21, the firm said. However, around 50 whales have realized a wallet-level profit in excess of $10 million, and several wallets hold upwards of $100 million, Chainalysis said, accounting for 94% of the total value.

Bringing hundreds of thousands onchain

Memecoin launchpad Moonshot said it had brought hundreds of thousands of people onchain following the launch. The platform’s simple web2-style interface propelled it to the top finance app on the U.S. Apple App Store and the seventh most popular free app over the weekend.

A frenzy of trading activity subsequently lifted the TRUMP token to a fully diluted valuation of more than $75 billion at one point, briefly surpassing the largest memecoin, DOGE, as Solana witnessed $50 billion in trading volume.

That was until the launch of returning First Lady Melania Trump's own memecoin, MELANIA, saw a 50% correction for the TRUMP token. Melania's memecoin hit a peak fully diluted valuation of around $13 billion before it also halved, featuring faster vesting periods though fewer insider allocations than Trump's token.

Kraken Global Head of Institutional Tim Ogilvie told The Block that the period leading up to Inauguration Day amid the memecoin's launch marked " one of the most active times " in the crypto exchange's history.

However, Trump himself appeared relatively unaware of the situation. "I don't know much about it other than I launched it," Trump said during a Tuesday press conference. "I heard it was very successful. I haven't checked."

The Official Trump token is currently trading at around $35, with a market cap of $7.1 billion — dropping from a weekend peak of more than $15 billion, according to The Block’s TRUMP Price Page .

Meanwhile, Melania Meme is changing hands for $2.75, with its market cap falling to $412 million from a $1.9 billion peak on Monday, per The Block’s MELANIA Price Page .

TRUMP’s ‘horrendous’ tokenonmics

On Wednesday, K33 analyst David Zimmerman said that despite TRUMP's "horrendous" tokenomics, there are no immediate supply concerns. 80% of the TRUMP token supply is held by wallets associated with CIC Digital — the Trump-affiliated entity linked to the previous launch of Trump-branded NFTs, sneakers and mugs — leading to concerns over insider selling. However, these tokens are subject to a vesting period of up to three years, according to the project’s website, with the first unlocks due in three months' time.

Currently, 20% or 200 million of the Official Trump supply is in circulation. Half of this was allocated for liquidity, while the other half was offered to the public.

Chainalysis data shows that of the 1 billion total TRUMP token supply, four wallets received most of the funds to hold under the vesting schedule or provide liquidity to centralized and decentralized exchanges.