The crypto market has been stirred by the emergence of a new meme coin named “Trump Coin” (ticker: DJT) on the Solana blockchain, bearing former US President’s initials. Launching with a reported market cap of $73 million according to SolScan, the coin’s legitimacy and provenance remain mired in mystery as the crypto community seeks clarity.
Real Or Fake? Trump Memecoin Sparks Frenzy
While DJT shares the initials of Donald Trump’s media company (NASDAQ: DJT), there is no official confirmation linking the former US President to the coin. The assertion originated from The Pirate Wires’ X account this Monday, where it was momentarily tagged with a “community note” identifying it as “fake news”—although, at the time of this report, that tag has since been removed from the tweet.
Mike Solana, Editor-in-Chief of The Pirate Wires and CMO at the venture capital firm Founders Fund explained that he “didn’t speak with Trump directly” and that he was “just reporting what I know via sources.” Additionally, the original post on X indicated that Barron Trump, the 18-year-old son of Donald Trump, would be “spearheading” the token project.
Tom Shaughnessy of Delphi Ventures pointed out multiple red flags, such as the lack of a locked liquidity pool and the unusual funding patterns. He strongly suggested, “So the new DJT Coin – LP is not locked, funded from Kucoin, not a standard contract, single source pirate wires, top owner concentration 67% – Build the wall to prevent selling – Trump doesn’t want to be the first to take credit or tweet about it etc? No shot. I lean scam,” suggesting a lack of trust in its setup.
Blockchain analytics firms like Bubblemaps have raised additional alarms. A disproportionate amount of the token’s supply—67%—is concentrated in a single cluster, with the largest holder being Raydium Concentrated Liquidity, controlling 43% of the supply. Such a concentration in ownership typically suggests potential for market manipulation or a lack of a decentralized consensus mechanism, undermining the ethos of blockchain transparency and trust.
Bitcoin Magazine CEO and Trump’s Bitcoin advisor David Bailey remarked via X: “If the DJT Solana memecoin is fake, whoever propagated that needs to be tarred and feathered and chased out of our industry for good. This is how you make the whole industry look back and signal to the President and his team we’re a liability not an asset.”
The introduction of DJT has had a notable ripple effect across other Trump-related memecoins. The TRUMP token (MAGA), associated with Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign, witnessed a 55% price drop at one point. Other smaller memecoins, such as TROG—a coin featuring a frog in a MAGA hat—also saw declines, although less drastic.
The speculation around DJT arises as Donald Trump has overtly attempted to align himself with the cryptocurrency movement. Over the last two weeks, the former US president declared himself the “crypto president” and asserted that he wants “all remaining” Bitcoin mined in the US. With the impending US presidential election, the potential influence of cryptocurrency is receiving increased attention. Reports also suggest that President Biden is gearing up to participate in a Bitcoin-focused roundtable next month.
At press time, MAGA traded at $7.42.
Featured image from Reuters, chart from TradingView.com
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