Rumors of a Solana-based TrumpCoin (DJT) being officially backed by Donald Trump are beginning to circulate, prompting Trump-based memecoins to plunge amid bearish market conditions.
As the former U.S. President turns to crypto on the campaign trail, is the election hopeful behind a cryptocurrency on Solana?
Trump-based memecoin MAGA (TRUMP ) has fallen 38% after rumors of a Trump-backed crypto on the Solana network began to surface.
Dropping from just over $10 to a price of $6.66, the popular memecoin has shed over $100 million from its market cap. According to on-chain analytics firm, Lookonchain, three TRUMP whales sold a grand total of 473,433 tokens. These three whales made a collective profit of over $6.2 million.
As per data available on CoinGecko , the overall PoliFi token space has also taken a tumble. Largely comprised of Trump-dedicated memecoins, the entire category is down 32% at the time of writing.
Leading losers in the last 24 hours include obema (OBEMA) down 71%, MAGA Again (MAGAA) down 49.8 Donald Tremp (TREMP) down 40%, and Trump Mania (TMANIA), which is down 38%.
There is some confusing information out there regarding the token’s name, its ticker, its native blockchain, and so on. Pirate Wires alleges that Trump is to launch, or is behind “TrumpCoin”, which bears the ticker DJT on the Solana network.
However, a PoliFi Trump-based token called “Save America ” with the DJT ticker already exists on the Ethereum (ETH) network. What makes this particularly noteworthy is that controversial figure Martin Shkreli appears to back the “real” Solana-based Trump token despite it being minted just 2 months ago.
The ETH-based DJT devs were quick to shout “I’m Spartacus!” in a bid to demonstrate their authenticity as the real DJT token. They did so by highlighting their commitment to Trump as a financial backer, which has so far donated almost half a million “directly” to Trump’s ETH wallet.
Either way, both DJT tokens saw some rather significant price movements despite the rampant confusion.
The SOL-based DJT crypto was minted in May on the Solana (SOL) network, it subsequently plummeted in value from around $1.80 to around $0.005 according to data from Birdeye. Following the news, the Solana-based DJT token jumped some 364% to $0.024.
The ETH-based DJT token also relished in some gains amid the confusion, increasing some 128% from $0.001814 to $0.004151 before slumping back down to a price of $0.002167.
Regardless of the price action, there is a rather significant battle taking place within the crypto space to determine which DJT token is the “real” one, or at least discern if the SOL-based token is a gigantic scam.
Mike Solana, editor-in-chief at Pirate Wires, posted to X to clarify a few details.
That wasn’t quite enough to appease the ever-present cynics on social media. Some were bemused by his lack of sources, and one particular user speculated that Mike had sold his account.
Seemingly unhappy with the beast he’s unleashed with this rumor, Mike humbly announces his departure from the crypto news sphere. Whether he’s serious or not is yet to be seen. In a rather interesting twist, there are warnings claiming that the Pirate Wires account was hacked, lending some credibility to the possibility of its editor-in-chief also being compromised.
So what’s going on? Well, it’s hard to tell. It’s been almost a day since Pirate Wires broke the news, and about half that time since Martin Shkreli also posted on the topic. Speculatively, Shkreli has positions in the SOL-based DJT token while the industry awaits confirmation from Trump himself.
Some see the whole saga as an elaborate ploy to capitalize on the increasing presence of crypto in U.S. political debate, especially ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential elections.
It’s expected as it wouldn’t be the first time an influential figure had their social media hacked to promote a scam crypto. Ultimately, if SOL-based DJT turns out to be a fake , the perpetrators will have a lot to answer for.