Trump-Themed ‘DJT’ Token, Issued by Martin Shkreli, Suddenly Dives 90%

A single wallet sold $2 million worth of the token earlier Tuesday, causing market capitalization to fall from $55 million to as low as $2 million almost instantly.

AccessTimeIconAug 6, 2024 at 1:12 p.m. UTC
Updated Aug 6, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. UTC
  • The DJT token, previously said to be associated with Donald Trump and his son Barron, plummeted 90% after a single wallet sold $2 million worth in one transaction, reducing its market cap to $3 million from $55 million.
  • Previously, Martin Shkreli, known as "Pharma Bro," had claimed he helped Barron Trump create the token and contributed to its promotion on social media. Shkreli appeared to blame Barron for Tuesday's price drop.

The Donald Trump-themed DJT token on Solana dropped 90% earlier Tuesday after a single wallet sold $2 million worth in a single transaction, bringing its market capitalization down to $3 million from $55 million within seconds.

The wallet ‘4UGm6’ held 20% of the DJT token supply and pocketed 15,500 SOL from the transaction. It then transferred the holdings to four different wallets, crypto social application @0xppl_ said.

DJT was issued in early June and quickly gained virality and market capitalization amid rumors that it was directly related to Republican candidate Donald Trump and his son Barron.

Crypto groups on X wondered who was behind the token given its outsized growth at the time. On June 18, Martin Shkreli, also known as "Pharma Bro," claimed he and Barron Trump created the DJT token despite initially denying involvement. He said he helped Barron issue the tokens and helped popularize them on X.

On or around June 19, blockchain sleuths discovered that DJT’s Telegram channel appeared to share the same admins as another token supported by Shkreli.

Meanwhile, at least one large holder in both DJT and Shoggoth.ai, Shkreli’s other project, had been profiting when he was publicly backing the token. One large DJT holder sold nearly $830,000 worth of DJT from a wallet that held millions of dollars worth of SHOGGOTH tokens around June 19.

The Trump campaign has not officially commented on the matter or Barron’s involvement in the token.

Nevertheless, Shkreli appeared to blame Barron for Tuesday’s price drop. He repeatedly claimed he did not hold any DJT tokens and did not share access to the private keys that controlled its liquidity pools.

“Ask Barron, i don't have the keys or any tokens,” he claimed in an X post when asked for comment alongside a graph showing the token’s price drop.

“I helped make it with understand (sic) it was the official trump token, not that this would happen,” he said in a reply to another X post.

Edited by Parikshit Mishra.

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Shaurya Malwa

Shaurya is the Deputy Managing Editor for the Data & Tokens team, focusing on decentralized finance, markets, on-chain data, and governance across all major and minor blockchains.


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