Photo by Darren Halstead on Unsplash, with modifications by the author.
Key takeaways
- The value of the RTR token has fluctuated significantly following misleading approvals.
- Trump’s sons 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, reaching a market cap of $155 million before crashing 95% following false claims of its association with former President Donald Trump.
The RTR token’s dramatic rise and fall came following social media posts from Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump teasing an upcoming DeFi announcement and praising the crypto community’s embrace of their father. Eric Trump previously tweeted that he had “fallen in love with Crypto/DeFi,” sparking speculation about a potential Trump-backed crypto project.
The token’s price rose from $0.0005 to $0.1460 in a matter of hours before quickly falling to $0.0076, according to data from GeckoTerminal. 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, first amplified the rumor by saying, “rumor has it that the official Trump coin is out…called Restore the Republic.” However, he later deleted this tweet and clarified: “Sources tell me that Don Jr. will support this token. That’s why I called it a rumor. I’m not a big crypto enthusiast and was not involved in this project in any way.
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. have issued warnings about unauthorized projects. Donald Jr. posted: “The only official project will be announced directly by us, and it will be fair to everyone. Make no mistake: stay tuned for the real deal.
This incident highlighted the volatile nature of the meme coin market and its susceptibility to misinformation. Crypto watchers have pointed to evidence that Kanpai Labs, the entity behind the Kanpai Pandas NFTs, announced the token before its launch. Bags, the pseudonymous creator of Kanpai, claimed in a now-deleted post that the Trump family chose the launch date before “putting a strain on us.”
The dramatic development of the RTR token shows us the importance of due diligence in the crypto space, especially when it comes to projects claiming high-profile associations. This also shows how much influence social media personalities and political figures can have on crypto markets, even without direct involvement.
This isn’t the first Trump-themed token to be the subject of controversy. Recently, another token called DJT made headlines when Martin Shkreli said that he and Donald Trump’s son Barron created it. The DJT token then crashed 90% last week when a large token holder appeared to sell en masse.
The episode highlights Donald Trump’s enduring influence among crypto enthusiasts. Analytics firm LunarCrush reports that there are currently 162 Trump- or MAGA-themed crypto tokens, up from 111 just two weeks ago. This proliferation of Trump-related tokens shows how politics, understood in the sense of figures within the political sphere, intersects with cryptography, as well as the potential for this type of mining in unregulated markets.
Despite the crash, RTR still maintains a significant rise since its launch, with a trading volume of around $130 million, according to Gecko terminal data. This incident serves as a cautionary tale for investors in the crypto space, highlighting the need for thorough research and skepticism towards unverified claims from celebrities or political endorsements.
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