Trump-Linked DJT Token Skyrockets 230,000% Despite Controversy

• DJT, a meme coin that has been linked to Donald Trump, has skyrocketed despite most celebrity coins crumbling, even as the industry debates who is behind the token.
• Investor Martin Shkreli has claimed that he partnered with Donald Trump’s teenage son, Barron, to develop the coin, but the industry continues to place bets, including $2.1 million on Polymarket.

DJT, the native token of the Save America movement, has skyrocketed over the past two days, even as debates on who is behind the project continue to heat up.

DJT trades at $0.002724, gaining 23% in the past day and nearly doubling in value over the past week. On Tuesday, the token surged 87% from $0.001814 to $0.003384, before losing some of the momentum amid a wildly volatile market. DJT’s self-reported market cap now stands at $2.71 million, although leading crypto analytics platforms have yet to verify the project’s metrics.

However, DJT’s price rise is shrouded in controversy. Key among these is the question of who’s behind the project, as Crypto News Flash reported.

This week, one online news source alleged that Republican Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump was behind the project. The association with the outspoken billionaire instantly caused a sharp rise in the price of the Solana-based token.

However, this didn’t sit well with some industry leaders, who termed it fake news. Pirate Wires was forced to issue a disclaimer that it hadn’t spoken directly with Trump’s camp and that it was relying on sources.

In his scathing remarks, Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey said that “whoever propagated that needs to be tarred and feathered and chased out of our industry for good. This is how you make the whole industry look back and signal to the President and his team we’re a liability, not an asset.”

Who Founded DJT?

The debate on who exactly is behind the mysterious project continued on social media, with Arkham Intelligence, a blockchain analytics firm, pledging a $150,000 bounty to anyone who could prove the identity of the DJT founder.

Fuck it, we ball.

$150,000 to the first person to definitively prove the identity of the creator of $DJT.

Only on Arkham Intel. https://t.co/cngi98z9Wr https://t.co/5snKhSyfuh pic.twitter.com/lEA6rm3BCe

— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) June 18, 2024

The most intriguing submission has been by Martin Shkreli, a renowned and polarizing crypto investor who claims to be behind the project. Shkreli claimed on X that he partnered with Barron Trump, the presidential candidate’s youngest son.

Shkreli later jumped on an X space to discuss the token, claiming that he had worked with a team of up to 50 people to develop it.

Shkreli’s claims don’t seem to have convinced many that he’s behind the project, and the market is making big bets around DJT. On Polymarket, a decentralized betting platform, the proposition “Is DJT Real?” has attracted $2.17 million in bets.

Prominent crypto figures are also betting big; Alex Wice, a crypto investor, wagered a million dollars with Shkreli, saying that the token was fake, while Gigantic Rebirth pledged $100 million against Trump’s involvement in the token.