World Liberty Financial (WLF), a crypto project tied to U.S. President Donald Trump, has raised $1 billion in a token sale, and as Trump heads into a second term, new Trump meme coins The market capitalization also surged to over $10 billion.

WLF made the announcement on Monday, the day Trump was sworn in as president.

The boom in cryptocurrency businesses linked to Trump comes as he promises to usher in a “golden age” of cryptocurrencies. Industry regulatory review Implemented under former President Joe Biden’s administration.

The WLF was promoted and formed by Trump, his sons and Trump’s new special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and launched two months before the US election.

Trump’s new meme coin, branded $TRUMP, was launched Friday night at the inaugural Crypto Ball in Washington, D.C., to coincide with the inauguration celebrations. On Monday, the coin surged to $74.59 from less than $10 on Saturday morning before giving back some of its gains.

The new coin expands Trump’s cryptocurrency interests beyond WLF.

Melania Trump launched her own coin “$MELANIA” on Sunday. Its rebound has given it a market value well over $1 billion.

Four-fifths of TrumpCoin is owned by Trump Enterprises affiliate CIC Digital and another entity called “Fight, Fight, Fight,” according to its website. It said the coins were “an expression of support for and participation in the ideals and beliefs embodied in the ‘$TRUMP’ symbol” and were not investments or securities.

Just two months before the US election in November, the launch of the WLF has raised concerns about ethics and conflicts of interest. The launch of the meme coin on Friday night also raised red flags, even within the cryptocurrency industry.

“While it would be easy to dismiss this as yet another Trump spectacle, the launch of an official Trump coin opens a Pandora’s box of ethical and regulatory issues,” said Justin D’Anethan, an independent cryptocurrency analyst based in Hong Kong. express.

Cryptocurrency attorney Preston Byrne published a blog post on Sunday predicting civil lawsuits against the currency.

“Someone is going to lose money, and some attorney is going to come up with theories and documents,” Byrne wrote. “From a purely political perspective, the launch of memecoins was a huge unforced error.”

Byrne declined to comment further.

“Crypto President”

The Trump Organization said this month that the president would hand over day-to-day management of his multibillion-dollar real estate, hotel, golf, media and licensing portfolio to his children once he enters the White House.

As of 2:45 PM ET (19:45 GMT), the Trump token was trading at $42.20, giving it a market capitalization of approximately $8.5 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

CoinMarketCap data shows that 24-hour trading volume is close to $40 billion.

WLF sold nearly 22 billion tokens on Monday, exceeding its original goal, according to the company’s website.

That includes a total investment of $75 million from Tron founder Justin Sun, who has been accused of cryptocurrency-related fraud and securities violations during the Biden administration.

Excitement over so-called meme coins has fueled a broader rally in cryptocurrency prices, as traders and investors increasingly hope Trump will deliver on his promise as “crypto president” by easing regulations and promoting digital asset ownership .

Several key figures in the Trump administration and its circle have ties to the cryptocurrency industry.

Bitcoin hit $104,031 on inauguration day and has surged nearly 7% so far this month.

Trump and Melania’s cryptocurrency was created on the little-known Solana blockchain, which CoinMarketCap ranks as the third largest blockchain network.

The price of the Solana token also rose over the weekend, hitting an all-time high of $294.33 on Sunday.

“The cryptocurrency market has become more popular in recent hours due to the launch of the Trump and MELANIA cryptocurrencies ahead of the inauguration,” Grzegorz Drozdz, market analyst at Conotoxia Ltd, said in a statement.

blurred lines

Peter Schiff, chief economist and global strategist at Euro Pacific Asset Management, took to social media to point out Trumpcoin’s jump in value, calling it the new digital gold.

Forbes estimates Trump’s net worth at $6.7 billion. This does not include the paper value of Trump Coin, nor does it include the income he received from WLF.

The prospect of loosening regulations around cryptocurrency policy has been enthusiastically welcomed by the industry and fueled a rally for Bitcoin following Trump’s November election victory.

The sharp increase in the price of the new currency has caused concern among some analysts.

“Meme cryptocurrencies like this are prone to large swings and we generally view them as speculative assets,” Conotoxia’s Drozdz said.

Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency analyst Danison said Trump’s coin represents the merging of the world of decentralized finance and the political arena, but it also “blurs the lines between governance, profit and influence.”

“Should public figures, especially those with such political influence, exercise such influence in speculative markets? This is an issue that regulators are unlikely to ignore,” he said.

Both Trump and Melania Trump’s coin’s websites avoid calling it a cryptocurrency, instead using the term “fungible cryptoasset” in their FAQs.

On Sunday, Donald Trump Jr. posted on

“We’re just getting started,” he said.