Trump Meme Coin DJT Falls to Nearly Zero as Dev-Linked Wallet 'Rugs'

The Solana-based meme coin TrumpCoin (DJT), which launched in June amid a flurry of claims over its unproven connection to former U.S. President Donald Trump, has lost over 90% of its value after a sizable sale that some traders are calling a “rug pull” by developers.

The DJT token, inspired by the Republican presidential candidate, experienced a dramatic 92% price drop early Tuesday after $2 million in tokens were sold off at once, causing the token's market capitalization to plummet from $55 million to $3 million in mere minutes.

Thomas Perrin, lead investigator at blockchain data visualization startup Bubblemaps, told Decrypt that whoever controlled the wallet “sold 2 billion tokens in one transaction.” More interestingly, he highlighted that the wallet’s owner was the meme coin’s “largest single holder with 20% of the supply,” and that they had received tokens “directly from the minting address.”

On-chain data curated by crypto social platform 0xPPL shows that the proceeds were distributed among four wallets after the sale—which netted approximately 15,500 SOL, worth over $2.2 million as of writing.

Launched in early June, DJT quickly gained traction amid speculation of direct involvement from Trump and his son Barron. The token's rapid growth sparked curiosity about its origins, particularly amid Trump’s own increasing embrace of crypto in recent months.

On June 18, controversial figure Martin Shkreli—a former pharmaceutical company executive known as the "Pharma Bro" who spent time in federal prison for securities fraud—claimed responsibility for creating the DJT token alongside Donald Trump’s son, Barron Trump.

But while Shkreli's link to the token was confirmed via on-chain data, the connection to Barron Trump was never independently substantiated. Prediction market Polymarket showed that the crypto bettors doubted any official links, and former Trump political associate Roger Stone said that the former U.S. President and his son were not connected to it.

In a Twitter exchange earlier today, Shkreli wrote that while he contributed to deploying the token, he does not have the private key to control it. He denied being connected to the sale.

Meanwhile, Slava Demchuk, the CEO of compliance provider AMLBot referred to sale of the DJT tokens as "another confirmation that most of the meme coins were created with a purpose to extract liquidity and defraud investors."

He added that meme coin traders should always keep an eye on large holders.

"They should constantly monitor the behavior of token's whales (big wallets that control most of the supply),"  he told Decrypt. "Once they start selling, probably it's a good idea to get out."

Editor's note: This story was updated to add comments from AMLBot CEO Slava Demchuk.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa and Andrew Hayward