Meme coins are a particularly intriguing part of the cryptocurrency space as they can lead to remarkable price increases within days and sometimes hours. However, they can cause significant pain and disappointment when (most of them) inevitably crash.

The dangers are amplified when it comes down to meme coins launched by the US president-elect and the former and future first lady.

The Trump Meme Coin Saga

The last weekend before Trumps inauguration was expected to be the calm before the storm. However, that couldnt be further from the truth due to Friday evenings launch of Official Trump a Donald Trump-backed and endorsed meme coin.

Given his stature and upcoming role, the token turned all eyes on itself and exploded in value. At one point, it was close to cracking in the top 10 largest cryptocurrencies by market cap as its own had grown to nearly $15 billion. Thats right, $15 billion attracted within a day or so.

It surpassed more established memes like PEPE and SHIB before the latter eventually reclaimed its place as the second-largest in its field, but the current difference is quite negligible.

TRUMPs price peaked at around $75, according to CMC and CG, before the upcoming presidents team decided to rock the markets again on Sunday evening and introduced a Melania meme coin. This had a multi-fold effect the newer Trump family token skyrocketed, reaching a high of $13 (CMC), while its older sibling dumped by 50% at one point, wiping out billions of its market cap.

It went from the aforementioned high of $75 to $38 within hours before recovering some ground to just under $60 now.

Liquidations on the Rise

TRUMPs price crash affected the rest of the market as well. BTC went from its monthly peak of just over $106,000 to under $100,000 within an hour or so, and most altcoins followed suit with massive price drops.

Despite recovering from their overnight lows, assets like SOL, DOGE, ADA, AVAX, SUI, and XLM have dumped by somewhere between 6-8%. Even more painful declines come from PEPE, VET, APT, and others.

Naturally, these developments led to a cascade of liquidations across the entire market. The total value of wrecked positions in the past day is close to $1.2 billion, with more than 400,000 traders liquidated.

Although the single-largest wrecked order involved BTC, TRUMPs token saw $140 million in liquidations as well, placing it ahead of more established assets like SOL, DOGE, and XRP.

These developments continue to raise the important question of whether the introduction of not one but now two meme coins by the future first family is good or bad for crypto.

Liquidation Heat Map. Source: CoinGlass