This is a segment from the Lightspeed newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe . The first crypto president did a very crypto thing. Donald Trump launched a memecoin on Friday night, creating arguably the largest trading demand spike ever in crypto. Solana apps and infrastructure buckled and sometimes broke as the network processed $39 billion in DEX trading volume on Sunday alone, blowing past its prior daily high of $10 billion, according to Blockworks Research. Some were quick to cast Trump’s first memecoin foray as a means to onboard masses of new users into crypto, although that seems like wishful thinking. The token is already down 40% from its Sunday high, and there’s no indication that the project has any purpose apart from gambling. Still, there was one Trumpcoin development I think could have longer-term implications — an overnight surge in Solana’s stablecoin supply. The Solana network housed around $6.1 billion stablecoins on Friday, per Blockworks Research data. Yesterday, Solana held $9.6 billion in stables. That’s $3.5 billion in new stablecoins, amounting to a 57% increase, in just three days. To put this in perspective, Solana added its last $3.5 billion in stablecoins over a period stretching from March 17, 2024 until Friday. The network packed 306 days of stablecoin growth into a long weekend. The TRUMP and MELANIA memecoins minted by America’s leading couple were paired with Circle’s USDC stablecoin, meaning traders had to buy the tokens with USDC, Blockworks Research data lead Dan Smith said. This put tons of upward price pressure on Solana-native USDC, so arbitrageurs likely bridged stablecoins over to essentially sell dollars for a little over a dollar. Historically, stablecoin supply tends to be sticky. It’s been a while since the 2021 halcyon days of Ethereum DeFi, but the layer-1 still holds some $113 billion in stablecoins, more than 11 times Solana’s supply. In addition to providing liquidity for memecoins, stables can be used for real-world stuff like remittances, payments, or onchain banking. That’s perhaps why a large number of Solana founders called payments and stablecoins the network’s most underrated sectors in our anonymous poll . So was the TRUMP memecoin — 80% of which is held by insiders — a shameless cash grab? Likely yes, but that doesn’t mean it can’t bring positive knock-on effects to Solana. Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter . Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter . Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more. The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.
