A study from Global Ledger shows that scammers exploited the TRUMP coin hype to steal more than $857 million from the crypto market over the past week.
The scammers allegedly created tokens representing other national leaders, sent them to top TRUMP wallet holders to establish legitimacy, and then launched a sweepstakes campaign.
TRUMP Meme Coin Hype Created a Rug Pulling Frenzy
Donald Trump flipped a coin memeTRUMP, last Friday, sparking a chaotic buzz in the crypto market. On Wednesday, the token’s market capitalization reached $8 billion, following a high of $15 billion on Sunday.
Fraudsters exploited the popularity of the token by send fake coins to portfolios associated with the TRUMP team and its creators. Crypto traders, closely monitoring these wallets, mistakenly bought these worthless tokens.
They assumed that the TRUMP meme coin team was intentionally purchasing these tokens and had insider knowledge. Fraudsters anticipated this behavior and took advantage of it.
According to Global Ledgerat least $857.5 million was generated from four fraudulent tokens linked to international figures. These tokens – JMilei, MELON, WTRUMP and PUTIN – have been cashed out on major exchanges including Binance, OKX, Crypto.com and Bybit.
Further investigations revealed that three tokens – PUTIN, KING and BUFFET – were linked to the same custodial wallets on Binance. These wallets withdrew $91.3 million.
The model suggests that a single entity or group created and cashed in these tokens.
Previous reports highlight that 40 wallets control 94% of the total supply of TRUMP and MELANIA meme tokens.
Despite this concentration, most holders are small-scale investors, with over 80% owning less than $1,000 worth of tokens on Solana.
In addition, 42% of buyers of TRUMP and MELANIA tokens are first-time crypto investors, according to a separate survey.
“The time has come to talk about the fact that large-scale political plays cross a further line: they are not just sources of entertainment, the harm of which is limited at most to mistakes made by willing participants, they are vehicles for unlimited political corruption, including from foreign nation-states,” Vitalik Butein, co-founder of Ethereum, recently said. wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Meanwhile, Ryan Fournier, president of Students for Trump, has come under scrutiny for allegedly sparking a mat pull coin TIKTOK.
On-chain data shows that Fournier sold $700,000 worth of the token, draining liquidity and causing its market value to plummet. Fournier denies any wrongdoing.
Overall, scammers exploit the current coin hype to the fullest extent possible. Users should remain cautious and understand the dangers and profound volatility of these tokens.
Disclaimer
In accordance with the Trust Project guidelines, BeInCrypto is committed to providing unbiased and transparent reporting. This news article aims to provide accurate and current information. Readers are, however, advised to independently verify the facts and seek professional advice before making any decision based on this content. Please note that our Terms and conditions, Privacy PolicyAnd Disclaimer have been updated.