PoliFi value drops double digits amid rumors of Trump behind DJT token

Jun 18, 2024
The DJT token, launched on the Solana blockchain two months ago, surged 180% on Monday due to rumors that former U.S. President Donald Trump is behind its creation.
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If the reports are accurate, this would mark the first instance of a major political party presidential candidate creating a cryptocurrency.

Previously, the independent media outlet Pirate Wires reported on X that there were rumors of Trump launching an official token. The outlet also mentioned that the project is led by Barron Trump, Donald Trump’s son.

Mike Solana, the marketing director of the venture company Founders Fund and the editor-in-chief of Pirate Wires, published the smart contract address. At the time of publication, the market capitalization of the token in this contract was $177 million.

Meanwhile, according to CoinGecko, PoliFi tokens dropped double digits. The first PoliFi Trump token, with a market cap of over $370 million, fell by 30%, Tremp dropped more than 40%, and the token associated with Joe Biden, Bodin, lost 30%.

Mike Solana from Pirate Wires clarified that he had not spoken directly with Trump and mentioned that it was possible the information about the token could be false. Trump’s campaign team did not immediately respond to requests for comment. At the time of publication, Trump had not posted any information mentioning the tokens on his platform, TruthSocial.

The reaction from the crypto community to the report was mostly skeptical. Ryan Selkis, founder of data provider Messari and an active Trump supporter, noted that the likelihood of the token being legitimate was 50-50.

On the Polymarket platform, investors gave only a 7% chance that Trump would launch a token by Friday.

Crypto investigators on Twitter quickly linked the coin to convicted pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli. Late in the evening, Shkreli denied this information on his X account during an X Space session, asserting that the token was indeed a genuine Trump token.