Trump memecoins rock Solana

This is a segment from the 0xResearch newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.

Talk about a crazy weekend in crypto!

Here’s what played out over the weekend leading to Trump’s inauguration today:

Trump launches the TRUMP memecoin (with an egregious 80% insider allocation) on Friday, catapulting to a $14 billion market cap — and $50+ billion fully-diluted valuation — over the next 33 hours.
On Sunday evening, Melania Trump announced on her Twitter page the launch of her own MELANIA memecoin. It’s not clear if these are created by the same teams, though Anthony Pompliano claims they are not.
TRUMP cratered 50%, and MELANIA soared to a $13 billion market cap in four hours (Crypto Twitter laughs up an imminent divorce).
SOL places new time-highs again at $292.
Crypto speculators are feverishly awaiting the rest of the “roadmap” involving tokens from the rest of the Trump family.

Amid the frenzy to ape onchain, Solana the network did not go down, though many key infrastructural stacks suffered instabilities.

Jito’s block engine, which provides off-chain auctions for MEV protection, saw a brief three-hour window where transactions couldn’t be submitted. Median priority fees (tips) rocketed in this period.

Loading Tweet..

Many users on Phantom wallet reported wallet loading failures and inability to send transactions, due to a high amount of transaction requests. Phantom claims there were at least 10 million transactions processed on Sunday.

Jupiter exchange founder says its price API and quoting engine were temporarily disrupted.

Users also reported long wait times for transfers from Coinbase to Solana, or frozen withdrawals from Binance.

Solana daily DEX volumes shot up from $6 million (Friday) to $28 million (Saturday) and $39 million on Sunday.

Impact on Solana’s onchain metrics

Solana’s real economic value (REV), defined as all fees (including MEV tips) users are paying to transact onchain, spiked to $57 million on Sunday.

In sum, onchain speculators have a lot of fun gambling, Solana takes a big win, while Nic Carter calls the memecoin launch “preposterous,” and Alex Becker calls it “embarrassing for the United States.”

Proponents of the metaphorical “simulation” definitely got a boost.

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.