Blockchain analytics platform Arkham has awarded a $150,000 bounty to cryptocurrency detective ZachXBT. ZachXBT first revealed that controversial entrepreneur Martin Shkreli was behind the Donald Trump-themed DJT token on Wednesday.
“This bounty was solved by ZachXBT. At 11:49 PM (UTC) Zach submitted definitive proof that Martin Shkreli is the creator of the $DJT token.” Arkham wrote In the X post.
“Thanks for running the bounty,” ZachXBT said in a reply to the post.
The DJT token went viral earlier this week after it was said to have direct ties to former US President Donald Trump, according to an unsubstantiated news report from Pirate Wires. The rumor caused DJT to surge more than 300% at one point Tuesday.
Shkreli, who has been indicted on securities fraud charges, has supported the unconfirmed story that DJT is the official token of the Trump campaign. He also challenged cryptocurrency trader GCR by placing a $100 million bet on the legitimacy of DJT tokens, a bet Shkreli later claimed GCR backed out of.
Late Tuesday night, Arkham announced a $150,000 bounty for the first person to prove the identity of DJT’s creator, and renowned blockchain investigator ZachXBT offered to collect the bounty.
Shortly after, ZachXBT posted to However, there is still no evidence that Barron Trump collaborated with Shkreli. Later that night, Shkreli admitted that he DJTed at X Spaces, which he hosted.
Shkreli gained notoriety and the nickname “the pharmaceutical bro” in 2015 when, as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, he dramatically increased the price of life-saving drugs by more than 5,000 percent, making them much more affordable for many patients. Shkreli was sentenced to seven years in prison for securities fraud in a separate case in 2017 and was released in early 2022.
According to his tweet on Wednesday, Shkreli was adamant that he could prove Trump and/or his family’s involvement in the creation of DJT. The Trump campaign did not respond to The Block’s repeated requests for comment on the matter.
According to GeckoTerminal data, DJT price is up 20.72% in the last 24 hours to trade at $0.01549 at the time of writing.
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