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“Pharma Brother” or Barron? Debate rages over the brains behind Donald Trump’s crypto currency
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Donald Trump has aggressively courted the cryptocurrency community as part of his 2024 campaign, including meeting with bitcoin miners, fundraising in Silicon ValleyAND opening his campaign to cryptocurrency donations last month, a first for a major party candidate.
Now, Trump, who in 2019 called bitcoin a currency “based on nothing,” is embroiled in his first cryptocurrency scandal, amid allegations that his youngest son Barron, or perhaps a disgraced pharmaceutical executive, Martin “Pharma Bro” Shkreli—is behind a cryptocurrency “meme coin” called DJT, the same letters as the former president’s initials.
Earlier this week, I wander rumors began to circulate that the coin, launched in May, would become the former president’s “official token”, causing the cryptocurrency’s value to soar.
As of Thursday afternoon, DJT’s value had risen by triple-digit percentages, reaching a market capitalization of over $150 million.
The rush on DJT, which shares a three-letter abbreviation with shares of the former president’s current media company, inspired a feverish search to understand whether Trump or his campaign was behind the cryptocurrency attempt.
On Tuesday, Arkham, a market intelligence firm, offered a $150,000 reward for the person who could prove who was behind DJT.
The next day, the company announced that a crypto analyst using the screenname series of fraud charges tied to his time running two hedge funds, he was the mastermind behind the operation.
The analyst shared screenshots of what he said were direct messages with Shkreli, in which the former pharmaceutical investor, known for raising the price of cancer drugs, stated: “I have over 1000 pieces of evidence that I created with Barron,” a reference to Trump’s son.
ZachBXT also claimed that the coin was linked to a Discord user named Cameron Roxborough, who claimed to be a classmate and friend of Trump’s son.
A LinkedIn profile with that name shows Roxborough attending the same Florida school where Barron Trump recently graduated.
After the bounty was announced, Shkreli said he created the coin after being contacted by Roxborough on behalf of Barron Trump and that the former president approved the idea.
The investor She said in a live discussion on
“I can prove the involvement of Trump and/or his family,” he later said he wrote on X.
The Trump family and campaign have not publicly commented on the DJT coin.
The Independent has contacted the Trump campaign and Roxborough for comment.