Illustration by Mitchell Preffer for Decrypt.
Looks like Donald Trump is the latest star of the crypto world.
Following a failed assassination attempt last week, the Republican presidential hopeful’s survival sparked a boom in appetite for risk assets—like meme stocks—and a surge in crypto trading.
This is because Trump may very well be the Wall Street favorite. Silicon Valley superstars and crypto bigwigs are betting that the ex-president and right-wing populist will now win—and they’re putting serious money into the cause.
As a result, digital asset traders appear to be hungry for the riskiest crypto craze of them all: meme coins.
The biggest winner in the digital asset market now is Solana-based Popcat, which is up by 79% in seven days and now trading for $0.9053, according to CoinGecko data.
Next up, another Solana-based token surged: the popular meme Dogwifhat, which has risen 57% over the past week to touch $2.51.
And Ethereum-based Pepe is the third biggest gainer of the week, having shot up by 39% over the same period. It’s now priced at $0.00001227, CoinGecko shows.
Among major tokens, Solana—the fifth biggest digital coin—has also jumped significantly, with traders’ renewed appetite for risk pushing it up by 23% in seven days. The Ethereum-competitor is now trading hands for $$170.05.
Elsewhere, Ethereum, the second biggest digital asset, has risen in value. It’s trading 12% higher than this time last week, and entered the weekend priced at $3,504 per coin. After sources confirmed to Decrypt that the long-awaited Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) would hit stock exchanges by Tuesday, the date was affirmed by Cboe yesterday.
Of the other top coins and tokens, many eyes were on XRP, which jumped by over 18% to $0.58 thanks to rumors that fintech giant Ripple Labs was nearing a settlement agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It’s one of the best performers of the week of the largest market cap assets.
And the biggest digital coin, Bitcoin, is up significantly too: The so-called “digital gold” has risen 15% over the past seven days, ending the week trading at $66,570.
On Friday, it hit its highest price in a month, reaching $67,000 per coin as fears subsided over the German government’s Bitcoin liquidations and Mt. Gox repayments. With Trump scheduled to speak at the Bitcoin Conference next week, it could mean another upswing for BTC.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.