Photo by Darren Halstead on Unsplash, with modifications by the author.
Key points
- The value of the RTR token fluctuated drastically after receiving misleading recommendations.
- Trump's children have officially warned against fraudulent crypto tokens.
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A meme coin called Restore the Republic (RTR) on the Solana blockchain experienced extreme price volatility on Thursday, surging to a market cap of $155 million before plummeting 95% following false claims of its association with former President Donald Trump.
The spectacular rise and fall of the RTR token came in the wake of social media posts by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, who hinted at an upcoming DeFi announcement and praised the crypto community’s embrace of their father. Eric Trump had earlier tweeted that he had “fallen in love with crypto/DeFi,” sparking speculation about a potential Trump-backed crypto project.
According to data from GeckoTerminal, the token’s price skyrocketed from $0.0005 to $0.1460 in a matter of hours before quickly plummeting to $0.0076. This volatility was fueled by influential figures on x promoting the token as potentially associated with the former president. At the time of writing, the token is currently trading at $0.0084.
Ryan Fournier, president of Students for Trump, initially amplified the rumor, saying, “Rumor has it that Trump’s official coin is out… called Restore the Republic.” However, he later deleted this tweet and clarified, “Some sources told me that Don Jr. would be backing this token. That’s why I said rumor. I’m not a big fan of cryptocurrencies and I was not involved in any way with this project.”
The bubble burst when Eric Trump explicitly denounced the token’s association with his father. “This is absolutely false,” he tweeted in response to claims about an official Trump token. Both Eric and Donald Trump Jr. issued warnings about unauthorized projects. Donald Jr. posted: “The only official project will be announced directly by us and will be fair to everyone. Don’t be fooled, stay tuned for the real deal.”
This incident has shed light on the volatile nature of the meme coin market and its susceptibility to misinformation. Cryptocurrency observers pointed to evidence that Kanpai Labs, the entity behind Kanpai Pandas nfts, had hyped the token ahead of launch. Bags, the pseudonymous creator of Kanpai, claimed in a now-deleted post that the Trump family had selected the launch date before “screwing us over.”
The dramatic swing of the RTR token shows us the importance of due diligence in the crypto space, especially when it comes to projects that claim to have high-profile partnerships. It also shows how much influence social media personalities and political figures can have on the cryptocurrency markets, even without direct involvement.
This is not the first Trump-themed token to face controversy. Recently, another token called DJT made headlines when Martin Shkreli claimed that he and Donald Trump’s son Barron had created it. The DJT token subsequently crashed by 90% last week when a large token holder appeared to sell off en masse.