Over the weekend, two events occurred simultaneously: the closure of TikTok in the USA, and the launch of Donald Trump’s official crypto.
The two things happened one after the other, and this temporal coincidence may suggest the idea that they might be somehow connected.
In fact, a couple of connections can be made, but there are also clues that go in the opposite direction.
Summary
The closure of TikTok in the USA and the possible relationship with Trump’s crypto
As had already been widely anticipated, yesterday (Sunday, January 19, 2025) TikTok closed all its operations in the USA.
The closure, however, lasted very little, because already in the evening the famous Chinese social network reopened in the United States thanks to an agreement with Trump.
It should be remembered that Donald Trump takes office as President of the USA only today, while yesterday the sitting President was still Joe Biden.
The closure of TikTok in the USA yesterday was an arbitrary decision by the Chinese company.
Everything, however, starts from a decision by Biden many months ago that ordered the Chinese company to sell its activities in the USA to an American entity. The deadline set was precisely January 19, the day before the inauguration of the new President.
If Kamala Harris had won the November elections, perhaps an agreement with TikTok would not have been reached, while with Trump it seems an agreement has been reached, even if only temporary.
Although there is still nothing official, the hypothesis circulating is that Trump has granted TikTok 90 days to sell at least 50% of its activities in the USA to an American entity. In theory, all this should become official between today and tomorrow.
The issue therefore is not yet closed.
The launch of Trump’s crypto shortly before the closure of TikTok in the USA
Saturday evening, before TikTok began suspending its service in the USA, Donald Trump publicly announced the launch of his official memecoin, TRUMP.
The news has made headlines around the world, and it has clearly overshadowed the closure of TikTok, also thanks to the fact that there were already leaked hypotheses about a 90-day postponement of the issue.
One must not forget that TikTok is a very famous and widely used social network, especially by Generation Z, the one of teenagers. Lately, in different parts of the world, TikTok has been used to conduct mass political propaganda, mainly in favor of the right, which is the political side to which Donald Trump also belongs.
The two events occurred so close to each other that the suspicion that they might be somehow connected is there.
On the other hand, since Trump announced his DeFi project many months ago, and won the elections two and a half months ago, why wait until the last moment?
The reasons for the launch of TRUMP
In reality, there would be two reasons that could justify the launch of the memecoin TRUMP right during the weekend that just ended.
The first, very simple, is that they wanted to take advantage of the expectations for Trump’s inauguration at the White House, which will take place today.
In fact, yesterday the memecoin of Trump’s wife, MELANIA, was also launched, probably to strike while the iron is hot.
The second reason is that the United States Constitution prohibits the sitting president from exploiting their inevitable popularity to do business, so yesterday was the last good day for Trump to promote an initiative like the launch of his own memecoin.
In light of this information, it is understandable why they decided to launch these memecoins before Trump’s inauguration, but this does not explain why they waited so long.
The trend of the price of TRUMP
At the time of the launch on the crypto markets, the price of Trump’s official memecoin was about $7.
In the span of a few hours, it had already risen above $30, and in just over 24 hours, it also rose above $70.
All this happened just as the news of the closure of TikTok in the USA was spreading, at a time when it was not yet known that TikTok would reopen shortly.
Instead, just a few hours after reopening, there was a small drop in the price of TRUMP.
Note that the maximum price peak was reached just above $75, about a dozen hours after the price had surpassed $70 for the first time. As soon as the maximum peak was reached, there was a drop to below $40, followed by a small rebound above $50.
The current price is still enormously higher than the initial launch price, and it is also higher than the first peak recorded above $30. However, it is already at -28% from the highs.
Although it is by no means certain that other speculative bubbles cannot inflate on this token, in the short term the bulk of the rise seems to have been made.
