Donald Trump's New Meme Coin Soars to More Than $9 Billion in Value

By Xavier Martinez and Vicky Ge HuangPresident-elect Donald Trump and incoming first lady Melania Trump have begun selling new cryptocurrencies. Named $TRUMP and $MELANIA, the projects are meme coins, a type of crypto whose value is based largely on the popularity of internet memes. The tokens are available on the Solana blockchain.The president-elect's token, which was unveiled Friday night, quickly soared in value and held a market value of nearly $10 billion as of Monday morning, while $MELANIA held a market value of $1.6 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. Trump's post announcing his coin, which went live at 9 p.m. Friday, caught the crypto industry off guard. Even as the coin's value soared, some worried about its heavy insider ownership and potential for conflict of interest.This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event. The full stream can be found by searching P/WSJL (WSJ Live Coverage).