Benzinga - TrumpCoin (CRYPTO: DJT), the cryptocurrency believed to be directly linked to former President Donald Trump, was reportedly created by disgraced businessman Martin Shkreli.
What Happened: These revelations were made by prominent on-chain sleuth ZachXBT Tuesday night via an X post.
ZachXBT mentioned that Shkreli, a financial fraud convict who faced six years in prison, privately messaged him on X, saying "Between us please."
In a series of screenshots posted by ZachXBT, Martin Shkreli can be seen texting, "I have over 1000 pieces of evidence, I created it with Barron," in what looked like a clear reference to Trump's son Barron Trump, who was previously identified as the person spearheading the project.
For those who are confused and need additional context.Earlier today Arkham announced a $150K bounty for the identity of the DJT creator
11:49 pm UTC I reply to Arkham saying I submitted for the bounty
11:57 pm UTC Martin Shkreli panic DM's me
12:27 am UTC Martin Shkreli… pic.twitter.com/pKCQDOo7AZ
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) June 19, 2024
Roughly half an hour after the private message, Shkreli, popularly known as "Pharma Bro," admitted on X spaces that he was the creator, ZachXBT said.
Shkreli’s private message to ZachXBT came after the latter publicly declared sending a submission to Arkham Intelligence’s $150,000 bounty for the person who can prove the identity of DJT’s developer.
To add more credence to his claims, ZachXBT established a link between a large DJT holder who dumped $832 worth of cryptocurrency and Shkreli's other project, Shoggoth.ai.
Why It Matters: The Solana (CRYPTO: SOL)-based coin has become the subject of intense speculation and media coverage in the last 24 hours.
It surged 187% on Monday following a disclosure by Pirate Wires about its links with Trump, However, the pump was short-lived as insiders started dumping the coin.
According to cryptocurrency trading data tool Birdeye, it recorded a 24-hour trading volume of $346 million, with a market cap of $131 million.
Trump's campaign didn't immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comment on the matter.
Photo by stockphoto-graf on Shutterstock
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