Extreme Meme Coin Volatility, Bitcoin’s (BTC) New ATH, and More: Bits Recap Jan 21

TL;DR

• Trump-related tokens soared before plunging by double digits, reflecting the meme coin market’s volatility.
• Bitcoin (BTC) hit an all-time high of almost $110K but dropped to $102K after Trump’s inauguration, which lacked crypto mentions.
• Ripple (XRP) peaked at $3.30 before dipping to $3.08, though analysts remain optimistic about a potential rally.

Trump-Themed Memes Went Crazy

The past several days have been more than eventful for the cryptocurrency industry, whose global market capitalization briefly surpassed $3.8 trillion on January 20 before plunging to its current $3.65 trillion (per CoinGecko’s data).

Perhaps the most apparent reason for the enhanced volatility was the hype surrounding Donald Trump’s official return to the White House as America’s 47th President. Besides taking center stage on the political scene, the Republican also made waves in the crypto sector, launching a meme coin of his own.

The token, called Official Trump (TRUMP), saw the light of day on January 18. Shortly after, it experienced a spectacular price increase, and its market capitalization surged past $14.5 billion. 

As it often happens in the meme coin niche, though, the rally was followed by a painful correction. TRUMP is currently worth approximately $38, representing a nearly 50% decline from its peak.

Interestingly, the price started retracing minutes after Melania Trump (Donald Trump’s wife) also jumped on the meme coin bandwagon. She introduced Melania Meme (MELANIA), which at one point reached $2 billion in market cap. This rise was likely fueled by Binance, Bybit, and other leading crypto exchanges, which allowed trading services with the asset. 

Similar to TRUMP, though, MELANIA headed south in the following hours and is currently trading at around $4.50 (a 50% plunge on a 24-hour scale).

BTC’s New Peak

The primary cryptocurrency experienced severe turbulence, too. As CryptoPotato reported, its price skyrocketed to a new all-time high of almost $110,000 on January 20. 

However, as the day progressed, BTC started losing steam. It tumbled below $102,000 minutes after Donald Trump’s inauguration. The Republican touched upon numerous topics during his speech but did not mention the cryptocurrency industry at all, which might explain why the asset underperformed. 

In the following hours, BTC reached a local bottom of around $100K before the bulls stepped in and pushed the valuation to the current $102,100.

XRP’s Price Swings

Last but not least, we will focus on Ripple’s native token, whose price surpassed $3.30 at one point on January 20. Its solid performance coincided with the bullish environment in the entire crypto space and the increased whale activity. 

Nonetheless, the market decline in the past several hours has negatively affected XRP, and as of this writing, it is trading at roughly $3.08. 

Despite the volatility, many analysts remain optimistic that a new ATH is just around the corner. Those include CRYPTOWZRD, who envisioned a rise to $4 in the short term, and Dark Defender, who predicted a push toward $5.80.