“Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli claims he is the one behind the DJT cryptocurrency (which is not affiliated with the MAGA meme coin)—and has alleged that his partner in the venture was Barron Trump, the 18-year-old son of Donald Trump.
Shkreli, who was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined more than $70 million for securities fraud and other offenses in 2018, initially denied having anything to do with creating the token. Research firm Arkham then offered a $150,000 bounty to anyone who could prove the identity of the creator. Within hours, a crypto sleuth who goes by the handle ZachXBT claimed the prize. And shortly after that, Shkreli publicly took credit for the token.
In a private message allegedly sent to ZachXBT, Shkreli claimed to have “over 1,000 pieces of evidence I created it with Barron” but has not subsequently released anything conclusive. (The Trump organization did not respond to a request for comment by Fast Company.)
Trump has started to more broadly embrace cryptocurrencies in recent weeks. In May, his campaign said it would accept donations in Bitcoin, Ether, Dogecoin, and Shiba Inu, and in early June he reportedly said he wanted to be the “crypto president.” The rise of Trump-affiliated cryptocurrencies, however, have muddied the waters some as it’s unclear who is profiting from the tokens tied to Trump.
Shkreli doubled down on the allegations that Barron Trump was involved with the DJT cryptocurrency in an X (formerly Twitter) Spaces broadcast, saying he only assisted his “friend” Trump, advising him about the token launch. On that broadcast, Shkreli said he didn’t have an active hand in deploying the token.
“We initially thought that having 70% of the supply in Trumps’ hands was going to make sense,” Shkreli said in the Spaces event. “I’m not going to get anything because I’m not adding value. My last name is not Trump. . . . It would make no sense for me to get 50% or 25% or something like that. But, at the same time, I like Barron a lot. I kind of viewed him almost as a son figure. I just wanted to mentor him and help him. I helped him make a decision as to which college to go to. I just have been trying to be helpful and friendly as much as I can.”
Shkreli also alleged Donald Trump was both aware of the DJT token and claimed “I have receipts of Barron saying his dad approved it.”
Roger Stone, a political consultant with longtime ties to Donald Trump, took to the family’s defense on X, saying “@realDonaldTrump and son Barron NOT involved in any way with $DJT.” Shkreli promptly began attacking Stone in comments, saying, “Roger Stone was barely sentient last I saw him,” later adding that Stone did not know Barron and intimating Stone was a supporter of the rival MAGA meme coin.
Throughout the drama, the DJT token has fluctuated wildly. It was down 6.5% on Thursday, but has gained more than 90% in the past week. The meme coin is still trading far, far below the seemingly competing MAGA token. The MAGA cryptocurrency is trading for just under $7.50 per token, while DJT is trading for $0.002806, per Coin Market Cap. (You would need 357 DJT tokens to have their value add up to $1.)
The public interest in the unsubstantiated allegations that Barron Trump (and perhaps his father) was involved in the creation of DJT has benefited at least one trader. ZachXBT noted that one of the large insiders at DJT had dumped $832,000 worth of the token recently. That account allegedly also holds significant amounts of the Shoggoth token, which is tied to Shkreli’s Shmartoggoth.ai project.