Trump campaign is not involved in DJT: insider

Trump-themed memecoin DJT on Solana went viral on Monday after tech publication Pirate Wires posted that the token had been launched with Trump’s blessing.

But the lack of communication from the Trump campaign on the topic sowed doubt about the veracity of the report.

An insider with direct knowledge of decisions surrounding the Trump campaign has now told DL News that the campaign wasn’t involved in the project.

An early proponent of the claim that DJT was “an official Trump coin” is former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli who later challenged members of the crypto community to bet against him.

One such bet, reached with pseudonymous crypto trader GCR, amounted to $100 million, but was called off due to the parties not agreeing on terms.

Bettors on Polymarket now assign a 3% chance that Donald Trump launched the token himself, or that a member of his family or staff did so with his consent.

The bet has almost $2.5 million in liquidity and reached as high up as a 59% chance on June 17.

Shkreli later claimed that he created the token in collaboration with Donald Trump’s youngest son Barron Trump.

Speaking on X Spaces hosted by influencer Mario Nawfal on Wednesday, Shkreli also claimed that Barron Trump holds the majority of tokens and is the sole beneficiary of the project.

DL News could not independently verify Shkreli’s claims.

Shkreli’s claim that a Trump family member, but not necessarily Donald Trump, led GCR to back down from the $100 million bet, according to crypto influencer Jordan Fish, better known as Cobie.

DJT is trading around $0.01 with a market value of $103 million, according to data from CoinGecko.

Tom Carreras is a markets correspondent for DL News. Got a tip about Trump or memecoins? Reach out at tcarreras@dlnews.com