Welcome to the Beluga Brief, where we deliver data-driven insights to your inbox for free, spending our time in the crypto trenches and combing through thousands of crypto news feeds so you don’t have to.

Weekly Beluga Insights

After the absolute insanity that was Trump launching a memecoin yesterday, I decided I had to wait to send this out until today to see where the dust settled. In case you missed it, you didn’t read that first line incorrectly: Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated on Monday, launched his own official memecoin yesterday on Solana in partnership with apps like Moonshot, Jupiter, and Meteora. After launching at a $500M FDV the price rapidly rose as traders struggled to figure out if this was real or not, reaching an all-time-high of $35B — 4 times larger than the market cap of Trump Media, which trades on the NYSE.

To be honest I can’t even fully process the implications of this event as it’s probably top 3 craziest things I’ve seen in the space since joining 6 years ago, however one clear takeaway is US citizens can launch tokens. I expect this to prompt all the companies who were nervous from a legal perspective to finally deploy a coin (Coinbase I’m looking at you), however perhaps more importantly it means there shouldn’t be any “regulatory concerns” for financial advisors to worry about when pitching crypto to their clients. This is simply an unprecedented event and a wild switch up from only a year ago, when companies were actively prosecuted for working in crypto.

Major Movers of the Week

Public Trading Wallet Update

One major effect of the Trump memecoin that we didn’t discuss above is its impact on the rest of the market, which you can see by the amount of red in the 24 hour change below. While this move reflects just how low the liquidity in the crypto market is right now, I think it’s also very short-lived. If we take just stats from Moonshot’s onboarding over the last 24 hours, there have been 200,000 new accounts created specifically to buy memecoins. The second order effects of an onboarding event like this I expect to be massive.

Probably the biggest loser in all of this is unfortunately Ethereum, as until now that was the only place Trump had transacted. This shift to Solana prompted it to reach a new all-time-high of over $260, however it also cemented it as the memecoin chain. The thesis on Ethereum being the global settlement layer doesn’t change, and if anything Trump’s actions actually further that given his protocol World Liberty Finance is on mainnet. Despite my love of ETH, I have to give props where they are due to the Solana community and foundation. Never would I have thought a sitting President would have a memecoin, yet they managed to make it happen.

Tweet of the Week

Huge congrats to the Moonshot team for making this partnership happen and bringing hundreds of thousands of new users onchain.

Recent Beluga Content

See why Plume could be the biggest launch of 2025 in our article here!

Free BONK Report from Fundstrat Research

Interested in learning how the institutions are looking at your favorite memecoins? Download a free report from Fundstrat Research on BONK and the memecoin landscape below!

Disclaimer

The content on this site is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice. While Beluga strives to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of information, there may be discrepancies when comparing our data to that of financial institutions, service providers, or specific product websites. Always consult with a professional before making any financial decisions.

Will McKinnon is the Head of Content for Beluga and has spent every day for many years trading coins. For that reason there are too many to name, however his largest holdings by a significant margin are Ethereum and Bitcoin. NFA DYOR