Is Trump launching his own token?
A newly launched meme coin named DJT on the Solana network is experiencing a surge in trading volume and an impressive uptick in its price, fueled by speculation and unverified whispers that ex-President Donald Trump might be unveiling an official cryptocurrency bearing the same moniker.
Despite Trump's apparent gestures towards embracing the digital currency space, the origin of this particular buzz can be traced back to a tweet by The Pirate Wires on Twitter this past Monday. Initially, the tweet was tagged as "misinformation" with a "community note" – a tag that, at the moment of this article, seems to have been removed.
Mike Solana, the man behind The Pirate Wires and CMO at the venture capital company Founders Fund (though not directly connected to the Solana blockchain), stated he hadn't communicated directly with Trump but was merely sharing knowledge obtained from his sources.
Additionally, an original message hinted that Trump's son Barron might be taking a leading role in the development of this token project.
Despite the lack of concrete evidence, the speculation alone has caused a significant buzz around the DJT token within the Crypto Twitter community, leading to a notable surge in its activity. This token, which was relatively obscure amid numerous others nodding to Trump, has suddenly seen a spike in popularity.
Since its inception on April 21, and particularly following a significant increase in trade on June 1, the DJT Solana token has recorded more than $129 million in trading volume, with over 26,000 transactions within a 24-hour frame, as per GeckoTerminal.
In this period, the token's value has seen dramatic fluctuations, with its price occasionally doubling and hitting a peak of more than $0.015 per token at the time of this account. There was also a brief surge where the price escalated to $0.37 late on Monday.
Currently boasting a total market valuation of $155 million, the DJT token, whose claims remain unverified, is not expected to significantly impact the market, likely succumbing to the burst-and-burn fate typical of many celebrity-endorsed meme cryptocurrencies. Nonetheless, Trump's influence continues to resonate within the crypto sphere, whether through direct endorsements like his official NFTs or indirect tributes like the MAGA token. Moreover, both Trump and the incumbent President Joe Biden seem to serve as inspirations for numerous cryptocurrency tokens.
Recently, Trump is said to have professed an ambition to become a "crypto president" during a fundraising event in the tech-centric city of San Francisco, signaling the growing importance of cryptocurrency in the upcoming U.S. presidential race—a sentiment echoed by reports of Biden preparing for a Bitcoin roundtable next month.
