This Week on Crypto Twitter: A Donald Trump Crypto Controversy, Starring Martin Shkreli - Decrypt
06/23/2024 11:01
A potentially not-so-mysterious mystery gripped Twitter this week, when questions swirled around the origin of a Donald Trump-themed Solana meme coin.
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Celebrities of all kinds have dominated Crypto Twitter as of late, and the last few days were no different. Instead of bitter rivalries or ridiculous stunts, however, this week featured a perplexing mystery, a former president, and one of crypto’s most prominent villains.
The circus began promptly on Monday, when a month-old Donald Trump-themed Solana meme coin, DJT, surged on unsubstantiated rumors that the coin was actually backed by its namesake.
getting a lot of inbound here. no, didn't speak with trump directly, assumed this was clear (text me though, mr. president). also assume he could rug pull, or pivot, say it's not true. just reporting what I know via sources. https://t.co/rGEukksUMs
— Mike Solana (@micsolana) June 17, 2024
After logging some $129 million in trading volume within a single day, people wanted definitive answers about whether the token was legit. Arkham, the blockchain intelligence firm, offered $150,000 to any person who could prove DJT’s true creator.
In short order, crypto’s most famous on-chain sleuth, ZachXBT, submitted evidence that the token was not created by any Trump family member, but in fact by notorious “pharma bro” and cryptoverse troll Martin Shkreli.
For 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— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) June 19, 2024
Shkreli had, hours prior, loudly bet some $100 million that a Trump family member was really behind the DJT token. But ZachXBT asserted that the former pharmaceutical executive and felon had confessed in a Twitter Spaces that it was actually he who created the coin.
If only things could be so simple. After contradictory accounts of what Shkreli actually said in the Spaces traded online, recordings surfaced of him claiming that he did make the token, but with the aid of Donald Trump’s 18-year-old son, Barron.
🚨🇺🇸 MARTIN SHKRELI: WE DID THIS ON BARRON’S COMPUTER
“We did this on his (Barron’s) computer.
He ran the programs.
The attempt to evade and equivocate is just absurd.
It doesn’t change the fact that there are 200 million bucks here.
Nobody’s saying no to 200 million bucks… https://t.co/RMmsxjaUaA pic.twitter.com/m6gZgCR4FP
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) June 20, 2024
On Thursday, however, those claims were shot down by Roger Stone, a conservative political consultant and longtime friend of the Trump family.
Arkham soon put the matter to bed—rewarding its bounty to ZachXBT—as did CoinGecko, which flagged DJT as unaffiliated with Donald Trump.
On Friday, however, Shkreli remained adamant that Barron Trump created the DJT token with him—despite producing little evidence to that end. No Trump family member has yet backed those claims.
where's the evidence? i had 4 eyewitnesses on a space who said it happened the way i did. you have a screenshot, right? https://t.co/eVNzRP0H9P
— Martin Shkreli (e/acc) (@MartinShkreli) June 21, 2024
Some Twitter users joked that certainty could only be found on the matter if crypto bros returned to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and asked the former president outright if he or his family had any hand in the token’s creation.
Rolling into the weekend, DJT was down over 47% from its all-time high reached on Thursday, to just under a cent. It's rebounded since to $0.0141 as of writing.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
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