On-chain sleuth ZachXBT exposed Martin Shkreli, widely known as “Pharma Bro,” as the creator of the new Solana-based meme coin, called TrumpCoin (DJT).
On June 19, Arkham Intelligence announced a $150,000 bounty for exposing the deployer of DJT. A few hours later, ZachXBT claims that Shkreli is the creator of the meme coin after he “panic” messaged the on-chain investigator.
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) June 19, 2024For those who are confused and need additional context.
Earlier today Arkham announced a $150K bounty for the identity of the DJT creator
11:49 pm UTC I reply to Arkham saying I submitted for the bounty
11:57 pm UTC Martin Shkreli panic DM’s me
12:27 am UTC Martin Shkreli… pic.twitter.com/pKCQDOo7AZ
However, Shkreli, who served around seven years in prison with a $70 million fine for committing securities fraud, claims that former U.S. President Donald Trump’s 18-year-old son, Barron Trump, is also involved in the meme coin. He added:
“I did not act alone.”
Moreover, Shkreli said in an X post that the keys to the token’s contract are with “Trump” — pointing out Barron Trump. Screenshots shared by ZachXBT show Shkreli claiming that he has more than “1,000 pieces of evidence” proving the involvement of the 18-year-old Trump in the meme coin’s deployment.
In addition, in an X Spaces on June 18, Shkreli claimed that the former U.S. President also approved the project and a total of 10 people were involved in its launch. He even claimed that Trump has been discussing the potential listing of TrumpCoin with the Kraken crypto exchange.
Despite the drama surrounding the meme coin, DJT surged by 29% in the past 24 hours and is trading at $0.015 at the time of writing. The asset’s market cap is currently sitting at $165 million with a daily trading volume of $9 million.
However, the price movement of the meme coin has some investors worried as TrumpCoin took a sharp fall from its all-time of $0.038 on June 18.
There have been no updates from the former U.S. President regarding the launch of an official meme coin yet.