Yahoo Finance

• The $Trump meme coin was the highlight of the crypto market this week.

• The meme coin has attracted a handful of big "whale" investors but also lured crypto first-timers.

• The concentration of whales holding $Trump coin could drive increased volatility.

The issuance of the official $Trump coin was the headline event of the crypto market in the past week, quickly becoming the 25th largest cryptocurrency by market value days after its debut.

The token has attracted a few large "whale" investors, but it's also caught the attention of retail investors, with many first-time crypto buyers among them.

Joshua de Vos, the head of research at CCData, said the trading volume in $Trump coin since its release has rivaled some of the largest cryptocurrencies out there.

"TRUMP has traded over $50 billion, rivaling SOL at $68 billion, ETH at $102 billion, and BTC at nearly $200 billion across top centralized exchanges," de Vos told Business Insider.

With money pouring into the coin, its value has risen nearly 500% since its debut, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Its market valuation hit $7.5 billion, with a fully diluted market value of about $37 billion.

So, who's buying the president's meme coin?

An analysis by Chainalysis found it's a mix of a few so-called "whales," or large investors, and retail investors wading into the crypto market for the first time.

At the larger end of the investor spectrum, 29 crypto wallets each hold more than $10 million worth of the coin, and five wallets each hold more than $100 million worth of $Trump coin.

"Whales dominate holdings," Chainalysis said in a thread on X.

The firm found that around 40 whales, each holding more than $10 million of $Trump or the $Melania coin that debuted a day later, account for 94% of the holdings of both meme tokens.

By comparison, Grzegorz Drozdz, a market analyst at Conotoxia, told BI that about 61% of bitcoin's total supply is concentrated among whales who hold over $10 million worth of the coin.

"Caution is advised with projects like $Trump, as they may be highly susceptible to manipulation by major players," Drozdz warned.

But Chainalysis said a significant number of retail investors have also bought into $Trump coin.

"Most wallets that hold $TRUMP and/or $MELANIA hold less than $100 worth, suggesting retail buying activity," Chainalysis said.