Memecoins bearing US President Donald Trump’s name surged in popularity ahead of his inauguration when opportunistic traders launched tokens that mimicked the official Trump Official (TRUMP) and Melania Official (MELANIA) tokens on the Solana network.
Thousands of new memecoins with tradable liquidity were launched on Solana on January 20, according to Cointelegraph’s analysis of data from aggregator Birdeye.
Of those, 61 were proven to be official “TRUMP” or “MELANIA” coins through their tickers, official branding, and project descriptions.
This counterfeit token attracted $4.8 million in inflows from 12,641 wallets in one day. In this analysis, we only included explicit imitations of the original work and excluded expressions that were explicitly satirical or distanced themselves from the disclaimer.
These tokens represent a sample size of fake tokens entering the market. Security firm Blockaid found that malicious tokens with “Trump” in their name jumped from an average of 3,300 per day to 6,800 on the day of the official TRUMP launch.
A sample price chart of fake TRUMP tokens shows what happens when liquidity is removed. source: TradingView/Birdseye
Alan Orwick, co-founder of layer-1 blockchain project Quai Network, told Cointelegraph that these tokens reflect scammers taking advantage of well-known brands while also leveraging the hype behind the original tokens to defraud unsuspecting investors.
“Many tokens are showing signs of a potential downtrend, characterized by high trading volumes with little or no liquidity or fundamental value,” Orwick said.
These imitation coins imply artificially inflated numbers to lure buyers. Others have had their liquidity drained by their creators, leaving investors with tokens they can’t sell.
Investors risk losing their funds on all 61 counterfeit tokens.
At the time of analysis, 38 fake TRUMP tokens and 23 MELANIA tokens were traded on Solana DEX.
Only nine of the fake TRUMP tokens had at least $10,000 in the liquidity pool. Low liquidity often hinders trading and exposes buyers to severe drawdowns and price manipulation.
Within the next 24 hours, the liquidity pools of six of these tokens were completely depleted, effectively pulling investors away. By the seventh token, the liquidity pool value had plummeted from $54,000 to just over $10,000.
Liquidity for the remaining two fake TRUMP tokens remained the same. However, in one place there was no volume at all for the next 24 hours, while in another the top two wallets controlled 99% of the supply.
Blockchain records show illegal actors removing liquidity of fake TRUMP tokens. source: SolScan
Meanwhile, at the time of analysis, only four MELANIA token clones had liquidity above $10,000, while the other two have already had their liquidity removed.
Within 24 hours, one of the liquidity pools disappeared. The remaining three companies showed high ownership concentration, making small investors vulnerable to sale by major shareholders.
Some tokens may mislead investors with their high market capitalization or fully diluted valuation (FDV), but Mads Eberhardt, senior cryptocurrency analyst at Steno Research, warns that these tokens are prone to manipulation.
“I would never trust any indicator related to a cryptocurrency that imitates others,” Eberhardt told Cointelegraph. “They have a strong incentive to artificially inflate their metrics to appear legitimate.”
The official TRUMP token surges before it soars.
The official TRUMP memecoin was launched on January 17 and quickly exploded to $71 billion in FDV, briefly ranking it as the 15th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
However, according to CoinGecko, after President Trump’s inauguration on January 20, FDV plummeted to about $40 billion, falling to 28th in market capitalization.
President Trump has been criticized on social media, with people accusing him of launching his memecoin just for profit, and the MELANIA token has since doubled down on this trend.
“Basically, we had an informal rule that the president would not start or operate a business that might create a conflict of interest. Creating multiple memecoins and DeFi protocols opens the door to widespread violations of the remuneration clause.” Castle Island Ventures partner Nic Carter said at
Billionaire Dogecoin (DOGE) advocate Mark Cuban said, “Goodbye to whatever hopes the cryptocurrency industry has of legitimizing itself.”
source: Mark Cuban
relevant: Suspicions of insider trading surface as TRUMP memecoins flood the Solana DEX.
The only official tokens released so far are TRUMP and MELANIA, but some have reportedly created tokens named after other families, causing additional losses.
According to on-chain analytics firm Lookonchain, one investor lost nearly $1 million in tokens branded as BARRON, citing one of Trump’s sons.
Investors have been falling victim to fake Trump tokens even before Trump won the election in November 2024. In August, trading volume of fake Trump tokens reached $150 million before Eric Trump publicly denied their authenticity or family ties.
Speculators Investing in Next Trump Memecoin Lottery
Cryptocurrency wallets linked to CIC Digital, a Trump company that holds 80% of the official supply of TRUMP, are receiving transfers of tokens named after other Trump family members.
One person labeled herself the “Official Ivanka Trump,” sparking speculation about the launch of a new official memecoin poised to create more overnight millionaires, but there has been no official confirmation of the project’s authenticity. doesn’t exist.
source: John Trade MBA/Rollan
Quai Network’s Orwick said scammers are exploiting FOMO (fear of failure) to target inexperienced investors using tokens tied to trending events. These plans often pressure buyers into making hasty decisions, leaving them with worthless assets.
Meanwhile, recent activities by Trump-affiliated decentralized finance platform World Liberty Financial (WLF) are further fueling speculation.
Fake World Liberty Financial website blacklisted by security experts.
On January 19, blockchain data showed that WLF purchased several Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domains, including barrontrump.eth, erictrump.eth, and trumpcoin.eth. It even acquired unrelated domains such as yatogame.eth and daolationship.eth.
World Liberty Financial itself has been a target of imitation due to fake websites selling a variety of products to scam victims, including fake tokens and fake financial services.
magazine: 5 pitfalls to watch out for when mimicking the Solana memecoin