Trump Coin ($DJT) is a memecoin launched on the Solana blockchain on June 18, 2024. At this time, there is no official confirmation linking the former US President, Donald Trump to the coin. ^[1]

Overview

On June 17, 2024, there were claims from Pirate Wires about Trump officially launching $DJT on Solana supposedly spearheaded by Barron Trump, the former president's son. ^[2]

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. ^[2]

Blockchain analytics firms like Bubblemaps also raised 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. ^[2][4]

Bitcoin Magazine CEO and Trump’s Bitcoin advisor David Bailey tweeted:

“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.”^[3]

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. The Solana-based Donald Tremp (TREMP) memecoin fell 36.8% from $0.95 to $0.60 in a similar timeframe before rebounding to $0.76 as of June 18, 2024. ^[1][2]

Owner Claim

On June 18, 2024, Martin Shkreli, also known as "Pharma Bro," claimed he and Barron Trump created the DJT token after initially denying involvement. “I have 1000 pieces of evidence I created it with Barron,” Shkreli wrote to blockchain sleuth ZachXBT in a direct message posted by the latter. He confirmed the same in his X Spaces podcast shortly after. ^[5]

The claim was motivated by a bet put out by anonymous and influential crypto trader GiganticRebirth, popularly known as GCR, who called out Trump’s supposed involvement in the token. He put up $100 million in a bet against Trump having to do anything with the project. ^[5]

“The only way this is 'real,' is if Donald J Trump himself, says he launched a meme coin himself,” GCR posted. “I'm well aware there is a cabal strategy to bribe people in the Trump orbit to pretend they had something to do with this when in reality a cabal of crypto whales did a presale and allocation to KOLs.”^[5]

Hours following GCR’s post, on-chain intelligence firm Arkham posted a $150,000 bounty that would pay out the amount to whoever unveiled the creator of the DJT token. This drew ZachXBT to submit his findings to Arkham. Shkreli’s messages to Zach and his X spaces came subsequently afterward. ^[5]

On June 20, 2024, Watcher Guru reported that "Donald Trump's former advisor says Donald Trump and his son haven’t launched a memecoin." ^[6]