Now, Melania has a meme coin out after Trump's new cryptocurrency

Melania Trump, set to be the US First Lady again, has launched her own meme coin $MELANIA, after Donald Trump's new cryptocurrency.

"The Official Melania Meme is live! You can buy $MELANIA now," she said on X, on Sunday.

"Melania Memes" has been described as "fungible crypto assets created and tracked on the Solana blockchain" on the site.

The move comes at a time when cryptocurrency is being embraced by the Trump camp with the President-elect having his own crypto.

"My NEW Official Trump Meme is HERE! It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING! Join my very special Trump Community. GET YOUR $TRUMP NOW," Trump reportedly said on Truth Social on Friday.

While having earlier called crypto a 'scam', Trump later reversed his position, backing it during his campaign trail. He became the first presidential candidate who accepted digital assets and his donors could give to his campaign through the joint fundraising committee using any crypto accepted via the Coinbase Commerce product.

A 'Crypto Ball' was also thrown on Friday by David Sacks, Trump's incoming artificial intelligence and crypto czar. The industry had already spent large sums of money during the last election and is now readying a wishlist for the president-elect's upcoming term.

Meanwhile, Trump's newly minted cryptocurrency soared on Monday to top $9 billion in market value, drawing in billions in trading volume just hours ahead of the US President-elect's return to the White House.

The meme coin, also known as $TRUMP, surged 73 per cent to $46.06 during Asian hours on Monday, giving it a market capitalisaton of about $9.2 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. Its 24-hour trading volume reached $42.2 billion.

Even cryptocurrency community participants were surprised by the launch of Trump's meme coin.

"While it's tempting to dismiss this as just another Trump spectacle, the launch of the official Trump token opens up a Pandora's box of ethical and regulatory questions," said Justin D'Anethan, an independent crypto analyst based in Hong Kong.

While the coin represented a blending of the world of decentralised finance (DeFi) into the political arena, it also "blurs the lines between governance, profit, and influence," D'Anethan said.

"Should public figures, especially those with such political clout, wield this kind of sway in speculative markets? That's a question regulators are unlikely to ignore," he said.

The prospect of looser regulations around crypto policy has been met with fanfare by the industry and had turbocharged a rally in bitcoin following Trump's election victory in November.

(With Reuters inputs)