Donald Trump, the former U.S. president who’s on track for a repeat White House showdown with president Joe Biden this year, has embraced bitcoin in recent months—forcing the Biden administration into a potential crypto pivot.
The bitcoin price has rocketed since the devastating collapse of the major bitcoin and crypto exchange FTX in late 2022, with Trump and Biden being warned it could be other only way to save the U.S. dollar.
Now, after wild speculation this week that the Trump campaign could be behind a new, viral cryptocurrency, a series of leaks have torpedoed the claims—crashing the price of the bitcoin rival.
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Former U.S. president Donald Trump has surprised many with his embrace of bitcoin and crypto this … [+]
On Monday, a cryptocurrency called trumpcoin and using ticker DJT was linked to Trump by the media company Pirate Wires, created and led by Mike Solana, who is also a vice president at Peter Thiel’s venture capital company Founders Fund.
“Per conversations, Trump is launching an official token—DJT,” the Pirate Wires X account posted, adding that Trump’s 18-year-old son Barron is “spearheading.” Solana reposted the claim, calling it a “scoop” and adding he “didn’t speak with Trump directly, assumed this was clear. Just reporting what I know via sources.”
The price of DJT, which launched just two months ago, surged around 300% following the claim, with traders betting the price could climb far higher if it was confirmed Trump’s campaign was really behind it.
However, after denying he was involved, outrage entrepreneur Martin Shkreli has admitted in leaked messages sent to pseudonymous blockchain sleuth ZachXBT and then on an X spaces broadcast that he’s behind the DJT memecoin—crashing its price.
Shkreli, a convicted pharmaceutical executive who hit the headlines for hiking drug prices almost 10 years ago and earning himself the moniker “pharma bro,” has become a crypto influencer since his 2022 release.
“I have 1000 pieces of evidence I created it with [Trump’s son] Barron,” Shkreli, who had directly denied being involved with the memecoin, wrote to ZachXBT in a leaked message. ZachXBT has accepted a $150,000 bounty for the identity of the DJT creator offered by crypto analytics company Arkham Intelligence.
Meanwhile, DL News reported a Trump campaign “insider” denied it has had any involvement.
Shkreli has, however, continued to claim he created the bitcoin rival in collaboration with Trump’s youngest son Barron, adding during an X spaces broadcast that Barron holds the majority of the cryptocurrency and is the sole beneficiary of the project.
Trump has leaned into bitcoin and crypto in recent weeks after making millions from a series of crypto-based digital trading card non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and putting him starkly at odds with the Biden administration’s anti-crypto stance. Trump declared support for crypto in late May and began accepting campaign donations in bitcoin, ethereum, solana, dogecoin and shiba inu.
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The bitcoin price has rocketed back to its all-time high of around $70,000 per bitcoin this year … [+]
Earlier this month, Trump reportedly went on a crypto charm offensive during a Silicon Valley fundraiser hosted by investors David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya, it was reported by Reuters. “He said he would be the crypto president,” Trevor Traina, a San Francisco-based tech executive and former Trump ambassador to Austria, was quoted by the newswire.
Ryan Selkis, founder of data provider Messari and a vocal Trump supporter, put the odds of DJT being legitimately linked to Trump at “50-50” ahead of Shkreli’s messages being leaked.
David Bailey, the chief executive of Bitcoin Magazine who has claimed to be advising the Trump 2024 election campaign on bitcoin and crypto, warned that if the Pirate Wires claim is wrong, it could spook Trump and cause him to back away from crypto.
“If the DJT Solana meme coin is fake, whoever propagated that needs to be tarred and feathered and chased out of our industry for good,” Bailey posted to X. “This is how you make the whole industry look [bad] and signal to the president and his team we’re a liability not an asset.”
