• The launch of Donald Trump's $TRUMP memecoin has propelled Solana’s total value locked (TVL) to $12 billion, its highest since the FTX collapse.
  • The memecoin’s debut spurred trading activity on Solana, boosting its user base and highlighting its resilience amid increased demand.

The launch of a Donald Trump-affiliated memecoin, $TRUMP, has sparked significant activity on the Solana blockchain, pushing its total value locked (TVL) above $12 billion, a level last seen before the collapse of FTX. The memecoin, coordinated by Trump-affiliated CIC Digital LLC and Fight Fight Fight LLC, has become the third-largest memecoin by market capitalization, trailing only Shiba Inu and Dogecoin.

Data from DeFiLlama reveals that Solana’s TVL, measured in SOL tokens, has been steadily growing, recently surpassing 45 million SOL. This surge follows a 23% rise in the price of Solana (SOL) since the $TRUMP announcement, marking a new all-time high for the cryptocurrency.

The memecoin’s launch was supported by Solana-based protocols Jupiter and Meteora, triggering heightened activity across decentralized exchanges on the network. For instance, Raydium, a decentralized exchange on Solana, saw trading fees surpass Tether's within 24 hours. Moonshot, a memecoin trading platform featured in promotional materials, reported a trading volume of nearly $400 million within 12 hours and onboarded over 200,000 users to the Solana network.

The increased network activity has also impacted the perception of Solana’s future, particularly regarding a potential Solana-based spot exchange-traded fund (ETF). Polymarket data shows traders now estimate a 61% chance of such an ETF being launched by mid-year, up from 43% before the memecoin's release.

While the memecoin has brought a wave of speculative trading, it also presents an opportunity for Solana to demonstrate its reliability. The blockchain has faced criticism for past outages, and this influx of activity serves as a stress test for its infrastructure.

Erik Voorhees, founder of ShapeShift, remarked:

“The rollout of Trump’s token signals a change in US fintech policy towards much more permissive innovation.”

However, critics argue that the long-term implications for Solana and the cryptocurrency market remain uncertain as speculative trading dominates activity.

Edited by Harshajit Sarmah