Trading has remained volatile for the Donald Trump's crypto token, launched by companies associated with the Trump family on Friday. The cryptocurrency is already changing hands at about half of the price of its peak.

Friday saw Donald Trump's administration throw a glitzy inauguration party for crypto industry professionals, for which some attendees paid as much as $100,000 on VIP tickets. The event included performances from the likes of Snoop Dogg.

As it kicked off in Washington DC, so did trading for a token with the ticker $TRUMP — a memecoin launched on the Solana blockchain which quickly amassed billions of dollars in backing.

"My NEW Official Trump Meme is HERE! It's time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING!" Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on Friday.

A second memecoin, $MELANIA was also launched on Sunday night, causing $TRUMP's price to crash out.

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A company called CIC Digital LLC — an affiliate of the Trump Organisation — was behind the launch, alongside Fight Fight Fight LLC. The pair of LLCs collectively own 80% of the tokens, meaning a business linked to the sitting president of the United States amassed around $8bn in crypto in 48 hours.

The launch has sparked scepticism about the ethics associated with a sitting president being closely affiliated with a cryptocurrency that bears his own name. Memecoins with similar characteristics have been associated with so-called "pump and dump" schemes.

Fight Fight Fight and CIC Digital have said $TRUMP and $MELANIA are not investments or securities but are an "expression of support."

Trading for $TRUMP started at around $7 on Friday, jumping as high as $74 on Sunday before trading at around $38 on Tuesday afternoon.

The hype came in tune with a surge in bitcoin's (BTC-USD) price which hit all-time highs ahead of the inauguration. Bitcoin was trading 2.1% lower, around the $103,600 mark, on Tuesday.

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