Crypto scammers pull in $155 million on latest Trump coin rumors

A cryptocurrency called Restore the Republic (RTR) has witnessed a dramatic rise and fall, despite trading for less than a day, due to confusion over its origin. When the token emerged on the Solana blockchain Thursday, it was quickly associated with former president Donald Trump's son Eric Trump, who had posted on X earlier in the week: "fallen in love with Crypto / DeFi. Stay tuned for a big announcement.”

Rumors began to swirl online that RTR could be the teased "announcement." Ryan Fournier, chair of Students for Trump, posted: "rumor has it that the official trump coin is out...called Restore the Republic." As rumors snowballed, crypto and MAGA enthusiasts alike poured over $155 million into the currency within six hours of trading, causing the value to spike over 120%, according to CoinGecko data .

However, after just one hour of peaking at $0.022, the price quickly dropped by over 80%. Triggering the swift unravel was a tweet from Eric Trump, warning users of "fake tokens" and adding that the official Trump project has not been announced.

In an interview shared on X, his brother Donald Trump Jr. addressed the confusion: “I love memecoins and that culture. I love what those guys are doing… But I just have to make sure that people understand that you can't conflate one thing with another.” He urged speculators not to associate any token with the family “unless you hear it directly from us.”

Once the token began to unwind, Fournier posted that he was informed by “sources” that Trump’s son would be backing the token. “That is why I said rumor. I'm not a big crypto guy and I was not in any way involved in this project,” he added, defending his case.

Some members of the crypto community highlighted that Kanpai Labs, the creator of the Kanpai Pandas non-fungible tokens (NFT), had been advertising the token prior to its launch. Kanpai's creator, who goes by the alias "Bags," claims the Trump family were behind the coin, even picking a launch date, then "hard rugged us," before quickly deleting the post.

RTR is not the first Trump-themed memecoin that is allegedly unaffiliated with the former president. Super Trump ( STRUMP ) has a market capitalization of over $14 million, and soared 20% as RTR began pumping. Likewise, the token MAGA ( TRUMP ) has a market cap of over $140 million and jumped 10% on Thursday. Historically, the coins have pumped during bullish moments of Trump's electoral forecast.