Just days ahead of his return to the White House, President Trump and his wife Melania launched a pair of meme coins that have skyrocketed in value and earned them billions of dollars, at least on paper.

When Donald Trump's companies released a celebrity meme coin just ahead of the presidential inauguration, it set a new standard for instant hype in a cryptocurrency launch, based on fresh research from a blockchain tax startup.

President Donald Trump promised crypto investors he’d usher in an era of legitimacy for an industry that’s long been relegated to the financial wilderness — dismissed by some mainstream investors as an highly speculative bet at best or an elaborate Ponzi scheme at worst.