Crypto industry heavyweights were expecting the new republican US Administration to take the digital asset sector seriously. 

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So, their outrage at Donald Trump and Melania’s new memecoins was understandable.

On Friday, the president introduced the "Trump" token, and Melania Trump began her "Melania" campaign on Sunday.

The value of the trump memecoin peaked at 15 billion dollars and then dropped to below 8 billion dollars for a short while when Melania's token received some attention.

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Controversy surrounds the memecoin sector, which is home to dogecoin and other joke tokens with little intrinsic value and high volatility.

This fuels the allegation that the emerging business is too risky and too trivial for serious investors.

Memecoins are based on fleeting social media trends that come and go just as fast. Trump team claims $Trump coin is a "meme, not security."

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Trump's $ Trump had sparked a crypto frenzy ahead of his inauguration, but the project claims it's just a "meme."

Announced on Friday by the man himself, the memecoin is designed to celebrate "winning" the election. Bitcoin hit a new all-time high on Monday, hours before Trump's inauguration. However, the rally was short-lived.

As Trump's speech concluded without mention of crypto or a strategic bitcoin reserve, the PG token pulled back sharply to 100,500 dollars, a 6 per cent intraday decline, and currently sits above 102,000 dollars.

The broader market mirrored Bitcoin's volatility.

Tokens like $Trump and $Melania, which had been riding the wave of political fervour, nosedived by over 20 per cent.

Some executives believe the memecoin volatility will hurt rather than help the industry's efforts to regain its reputation. Trump's memecoin also fuelled suspicion about his financial dealings.

Government watchdogs wasted no time in describing Trump's memecoin as his latest unethical move and an attempt to cash in on his place on the world stage.

Other groups that voiced their concerns include the non-profit campaign Legal Centre and the Washington-based Citizens for Responsible Ethics, which unsuccessfully sued Trump in his first term for violating constitutional prohibitions on foreign gifts and compensation.

Danielle Brian, head of the nonpartisan project on government oversight, said memecoins are typically unrelated to any real-world enterprise, making them risky for investors but offering enormous rewards to their creators.

Brian said, "Any effort the trump organisation was making to demonstrate they were concerned about potential conflicts, specifically where it comes to foreign governments — this seems to entirely undermine."

(With inputs from the agencies)