The incoming First Lady of the United States Melania Trump has launched a cryptocurrency ahead of her husband's inauguration as US President.
The news came a day after US President-elect Donald Trump released the $Trump cryptocurrency. Both coins rose in value, but there was volatile trading, the BBC reported.
"Melania's official meme is live! You can buy $Melania now," she wrote on social network X.
The website for the "Official Melania Meme" says it is a crypto asset created and tracked on the Solana blockchain.
The websites for the $Trump and $Melania coins state that they "are not intended to be an investment opportunity or security, nor are they subject to one."
According to the CoinMarketCap website, the total market valuation of $Trump is about $12 billion and that of $Melania is about $1.7 billion.
Trump previously called cryptocurrencies a "scam," but during the 2024 election campaign, he became the first presidential candidate to accept digital assets as donations.
During the campaign, the Republican also said he would create a strategic stockpile of bitcoins and appoint financial regulators who take a more positive stance toward digital assets.
This raised expectations that he would remove regulations on the crypto industry.
Since Trump's victory, bitcoin has soared to record highs currently trading at $140,000, according to crypto trading platform Coinbase.
On January 17, the incoming king of artificial intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrencies, David Sachs, organized a "Crypto Ball" in Washington, DC.
Other cryptocurrencies, including dogecoin, which was promoted by high-profile Trump supporter Elon Musk, have also risen sharply this year.
Under President Joe Biden, regulators cited fraud and money-laundering concerns when cracking down on crypto companies suing exchanges. | BGNES
