On January 20, 2025, when Donald Trump was inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States, the price of Bitcoin briefly shot up above $109,000, and then crashed to less than $101,000 while Donald Trump gave his inaugural speech. That is quite a dramatic change, noting that the market reacted to expectations about the policies of Donald Trump and some recent developments in the crypto space.
Bitcoin Price Swings
In the hours before Trump’s inauguration, Bitcoin rose to over $109,000. However, when he started delivering his inaugural speech in Washington, D.C., it suddenly dived to close a hair below the $101,000 level. This kind of volatility has been the mantra of the cryptocurrency market, given the influence of political events and expectations of over-regulation. At the time of writing on January 21, Bitcoin trades around $101, 681.
The Trump regime promised to make the United States the “crypto capital of the world.” He didn’t present policies in his inaugural speech. At least, investors can only hope, as one cryptocurrency-dedicated executive order is reportedly slated to arrive sometime imminently.
Before the inaugural festivities, the Trump Team dropped its new memecoins on Solana. Two coins, bearing the names of Trump ($TRUMP) and Melania Trump ($MELANIA) respectively, are live and trading now. Companies associated with The Trump Organization—specifically, CIC Digital LLC—hold about 80% of these specific memecoin tokens and are set to be locked in for three years over them.
These memecoins have dominated so much space in the crypto community. Major exchanges such as Coinbase and Bybit, list these new tokens, which have seen considerable trading volumes. The Solana blockchain has registered more than $50 billion in trading in its first 48 hours since its launch, more than all other blockchain networks registered in the same period.
Market Reactions and Analyst Insights
Analysts are closely watching how the return of President Trump is going to shift the cryptocurrency market. In a note, Bernstein analyst Gautam Chhugani commented that memecoins marking the beginning of this new era of crypto regulation were a release to the point that now investors have to look at the bigger pieces of the ecosystem. The short-term market will react to some of Trump’s policies, and it will be highly important for that to determine future trends.
The return of Donald Trump to the presidency has seen quite a few notable fluctuations in Bitcoin prices and increased interest in new memecoins. Investors are on alert as the market reacts to potential changes in regulatory frameworks and promises to the crypto community from Trump.
