Despite Trump's claim of "not knowing much" about his eponymous TRUMP token, it is undeniable that the Trump family's entire cryptocurrency layout has powerful "operators" behind it.

The Seemingly Casual Launch of TRUMP Token

Behind the seemingly casual launch of the TRUMP token, collaborations with multiple project parties such as Moonshot, Jupiter/Meteora were obviously reached in advance. Apart from Solana, they are the biggest beneficiaries behind Trump's epic token launch.

Primary Supporters/Beneficiaries of Trump's Token Launch

Moonshot - 400,000 New Users, A Challenger to CEX

After Trump launched the TRUMP token, Moonshot, recommended as the official purchase channel by Trump, gained over 400,000 new users within 24 hours and processed nearly $400 million in transactions. Due to the trading frenzy of the TRUMP token, Moonshot surged to the top of free finance apps on the Apple App Store in the United States, surpassing Coinbase, PayPal, and Robinhood.

According to statistics from @sliceanalytics on Dune, Moonshot gained 187,400 new on-chain users solely through TRUMP, while the popular meme Chillguy on TikTok only brought it over 7,200 new users previously.

Currently, the cumulative trading volume of TRUMP on Moonshot has reached nearly $750 million.

After Trump's token launch, Robinhood also collaborated with Moonshot, allowing over 20 million Robinhood users to seamlessly deposit funds into Moonshot, opening up more traffic for Moonshot.

Moonshot is not a meme launch platform launched by DEXScreener but shares the same origin as Pump.fun, both incubated by Alliance DAO.

Soon after its launch in July last year, Moonshot was recommended by meme super shouter Murad. Its feature is supporting fiat currency deposits for memes. Users can quickly fund their accounts through common payment methods such as Apple Pay, credit cards, and PayPal, without managing complex blockchain wallets or paying gas fees.

Moonshot hosts a vast collection of popular meme coins, including many tokens not yet listed on second-tier or top exchanges.

Around October last year, Moonshot gained popularity due to the "listing effect" of consecutively listing MOODENG, SPX6900, Chillguy, and GOAT, earning it the nickname "meme Binance" and "small Binance on the chain".

Because of its quick fiat currency deposits, Moonshot easily attracts users outside the crypto circle, with MOODENG and Chillguy being concept coins on TikTok.

This rapid adoption of the $30 billion presidential meme TRUMP is expected to become Moonshot's best showcase for its "listing effect," and the platform's future listing effects and carefully selected tokens deserve continued attention.

Moonshot allows massive users to bypass CEX and participate directly, posing a significant threat to CEX.

Currently, Moonshot has not disclosed its token issuance plan.

Jupiter/Meteora - Stirring the Solana DeFi Landscape

As the largest DEX aggregator on Solana, Jupiter is a well-known star project in the crypto community. Many users may not be familiar with Meteora, the liquidity platform for stable assets on Solana. In fact, Meteora and Jupiter share the same founding team, with Meteora being founded before Jupiter.

Meteora, originally named Mercurial Finance, issued the MER token in 2022 but renamed the brand to Meteora and abandoned the MER token due to the impact of the FTX implosion. The new MET token planned by Meteora has not been issued yet.

Jupiter and Meteora provided LFG technology stack and liquidity support respectively for Trump's token launch.

After Trump's token launch, Jupiter mentioned on the X platform that the issuance of TRUMP used the same LFG technology stack as JUP, including DLMM pools, ILM design, and tight integration with Jupiter.

Jupiter stated that through close collaboration with the Meteora team, it ensured the smooth issuance of TRUMP, not only on Jupiter but also across the entire ecosystem using Jupiter's API, including applications like Moonshot.

On Meteora, the TRUMP team injected 10% initial liquidity into the TRUMP/USDC trading pair and utilized the DLMM mechanism to smoothly sell over $500 million worth of tokens into the market.

Jupiter and Meteora have benefited greatly from this epic token launch collaboration with Trump, especially the previously unknown Meteora.

On the day of Trump's token launch (January 18), Jupiter's daily trading volume surged to 16.8billion,andthenextdaysetahistoricalrecordof20.6 billion, more than three times its usual daily trading volume of around $6 billion.

Meteora's growth was even more exaggerated, with trading volumes reaching new highs of 3.99billion,6.1 billion, and 4.7billiononJanuary18,19,and20,respectively,whichisabout8−10timesitsusualtradingvolumeof500-600 million.

Meteora has also become one of the most profitable protocols in the Trump effect. According to monitoring by @ai_9684xtpa, within about five hours after Trump's token launch, TRUMP's main liquidity pool protocol revenue on Meteora ranked second in the past 24 hours across the entire network, trailing only Tether, with LP income reaching 12.2million.Ifestimatedbasedonaveragehourlyfeeincome,itwouldreach58.08 million in 24 hours.

On January 21, according to DefiLlama data, Meteora's fees within 24 hours amounted to $111.93 million, surpassing Solana to rank first.

Meteora has also eroded Raydium's market share, stirring the Solana ecosystem's DeFi landscape. According to Blockwork data, Raydium previously accounted for about 90% of the Solana meme trading market share. After the TRUMP token launch, it dropped to 30%, while Meteora's share of MEME token trading on Solana increased from less than 10% to 60%.

Wintermute - Market Making Project Becomes a Benchmark

Wintermute quickly supported OTC trading of TRUMP tokens after Trump's token launch and further announced support for trading TRUMP tokens via API, providing Streaming and RFQ pricing.

Previous on-chain analysis indicated that the first largest holding address of TRUMP was suspected to be Wintermute, which may have already collaborated to provide market-making services for TRUMP tokens earlier.

Previously, meme and AI agent tokens were popular, and Wintermute's market-making projects, holdings, and trading dynamics became benchmarks for many players.

At the end of November, according to the analysis by @ai_9684xtpa, among the TOP 25 meme tokens market-made by Wintermute, 64% had been listed on Binance, with six tokens listed on both spot and perpetual contracts.

Crypto KOL @NFTbigbanana also analyzed Wintermute's market-making path, with notable signals coming from the official Twitter account. Before market-making, @wintermute_t may follow or interact with relevant meme tweets or transfer small amounts of tokens to Wintermute wallets. The next step is washing and accumulating, characterized by a long period (6 months+) but with minor retracements. Finally, there's a significant price surge.

Players can observe Wintermute's trading movements and related addresses through wallet addresses labeled on platforms like arkm.

Other Meme Infrastructure in the Solana Ecosystem

Apart from Moonshot, Jupiter/Meteora, and Wintermute, which supported Trump's token launch and enjoyed immense wealth, other meme infrastructure in the Solana ecosystem also leveraged the resulting traffic. DefiLlama data shows that the TVL of Solana ecosystem projects has generally increased over the past seven days.

Among the projects ranking in the top 20 in income over the past seven days, more than half are from the Solana ecosystem. Besides Solana, they are mainly meme trading tool platforms, trading bots, and dex, ranked in descending order of income: Photon, Pump, Moonshot, MEVX, Phantom, BullX, BONKbot, Raydium, Trojan, DEX Screener, and GMGN.

Who Are the Primary Beneficiaries and Potential Operators Behind Trump's Token Launch?

Why Are Polychain and Sun Yuchen Rumored to Be the Leaders Behind Trump's Token Launch?

It is currently difficult to determine the exact operators behind Trump's token launch. However, various crypto projects of the Trump family, especially key team members of WLFI, and crypto-friendly officials in Trump's new administration have been involved to some extent.

Apart from Trump and his family members, the five co-founders of WLFI are Chase Herro, Zak Folkman, Steven Witkoff, Zach Witkoff, and Alex Witkoff.

These five co-founders don't have deep crypto backgrounds but have some connections to crypto. Chase Herro has a complex background in businesses such as marijuana sales and weight loss products