Trump-themed crypto crashes as sons Don Jr. and Eric seem to hint at a new crypto venture

Donald Trump might be positioning himself as the crypto candidate, but when it comes to tokens, he may not necessarily have the Midas touch.

The DJT token, which “Pharma Bro” Martin Shrkeli claims to have helped launch, cratered earlier this week, plunging 90% within 15 minutes. Since its launch, the token has lost more than 95% of its value.

The drop is causing many investors to wonder if the DJT token was a classic rug pull, as its market capitalization dropped from $55 million to $3 million on Tuesday after an unknown party exited the crypto.

Shrkeli has adamantly denied speculation that he was behind the exit, saying he did not have the keys to do so. “I helped make it with understand [sic] it was the official trump token, not that this would happen,” he wrote in a separate posting on X (formerly Twitter).

Less than two months ago, Shrkeli claimed to be friends with Baron Trump and said he had helped the Republican candidate’s son create the token. (Trump insider Roger Stone quickly denied Baron was involved with the crypto in any way. The Trump camp never addressed Shrkeli’s allegations.) While Shrkeli claimed to have “over 1,000 pieces of evidence I created it with Barron,” he did not subsequently release anything conclusive.

On Thursday, though, Shrkeli wrote “I have no Trump affiliation whatsoever other than a brief friendship which is over,” adding in another tweet “Haven’t talked to a Trump in 6 weeks. And I never will again, I’ve had enough.”

The collapse of the DJT token comes as both Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. seem to have hinted that they have some crypto-focused project on the verge of launching as well. “We’re about to shake up the crypto worldwith [sic] something HUGE,” wrote Don Jr. on Wednesday. Eric’s promotional tweet cc:d’s his father.

Neither has offered any additional details since posting the tease Tweets.

Trump, who made millions selling NFTs in 2022, has more broadly embraced cryptocurrencies in the past few months. In May, his campaign said it would accept donations in Bitcoin, Ether, Dogecoin, and Shiba Inu. In early June he announced he wanted to be the “crypto president.” The rise of Trump-affiliated cryptocurrencies, however, have muddied the waters some, though, as it’s unclear who is profiting off of the tokens tied to Trump. 

The DJT meme coin never saw prices anywhere close to the seemingly competing MAGA token. But that crypto, also, is markedly off its highs of late. On Thursday afternoon, it was trading for just $3.36 after it topped $17 per token in early June. It’s down roughly 40% in the past month.

The MAGA coin, which trades under the symbol TRUMP, is part of an “experiment” in PoliFi (a fusion of politics and finance). That’s according to marketing director Steven Steele, a YouTube talk show host (who appears to be an ardent Trump supporter, based on his social media posts). CoinDesk reported in May that a wallet supposedly linked to Trump holds the MAGA meme coin with a current value of $4.6 million. It is unclear whether the wallet actually belongs to Trump. (The Trump organization did not respond to a request for comment.) That wallet was given $7,100 of MAGA coin by the coin’s developers between August and October of last year.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91170173/trump-themed-crypto-crashes-sons-don-jr-eric-hint-new-crypto-venture?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss