Trump RTR-themed meme coin rises and falls within hours

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A meme coin called Restore the Republic (RTR) on the Solana blockchain experienced extreme price volatility on Thursday, reaching a market cap of $155 million before plunging 95% following false claims by the association his with former President Donald Trump.

The dramatic rise and fall of the RTR token came on the heels of social media posts by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, who teased an upcoming DeFi announcement and praised the crypto community’s embrace of their father. Eric Trump earlier tweeted that he “fell in love with Crypto/DeFi,” prompting speculation about a potential Trump-backed crypto project.

The token price skyrocketed from $0.0005 to $0.1460 in a few hours before quickly falling to $0.0076, according to data from GeckoTerminal. This volatility was fueled by influential figures on X promoting the token as potentially associated with the former president. At the time of writing, the token is currently trading at $0.0084.

Ryan Fournier, president of Students for Trump, initially amplified the rumor, stating, “The official trump coin is rumored to be out … called Restore the Republic.” However, he later deleted this tweet and clarified: “I have been told by sources that Don Jr. will support this symbol. That’s why I said rumor. I’m not a big crypto guy and I wasn’t involved in this project in any way.”

The bubble burst when Eric Trump explicitly denounced the symbol’s association with his father. “This is absolutely false,” he tweeted in response to claims of an official Trump symbol. Both Eric and Donald Trump Jr. have issued warnings about the unauthorized projects. Donald Jr. posted: “The only official draft will be announced directly by us and will be fair to everyone. Don’t be fooled – stay tuned for the real deal.”

This incident shed light on the volatile nature of the meme coin market and its susceptibility to misinformation. Crypto watchers have pointed to evidence that Kanpai Labs, the entity behind the Kanpai Pandas NFTs, advertised the token ahead of launch. Bags, Kanpai’s pseudonymous creator, claimed in a now-deleted post that the Trump family chose the release date before “roughing us up.”

The dramatic evolution of the RTR token shows us the importance of due diligence in the crypto space, especially when it comes to projects claiming high-profile associations. It also shows how much influence social media personalities and political figures can have on crypto markets, even without direct involvement.

This isn’t the first Trump-themed symbol to run into controversy. Recently, another token called DJT made headlines when Martin Shkreli claimed that he and Donald Trump’s son Barron created it. The DJT token subsequently crashed by 90% last week when a large token holder appeared to sell en masse.

The episode highlights Donald Trump’s lasting influence among crypto enthusiasts. Analytics firm LunarCrush reports that there are currently 162 Trump-themed, or MAGA, crypto tokens, up from 111 just two weeks ago. This proliferation of Trump-related tokens shows how politics, understood in the sense of figures in the political sphere, intersects with crypto, as well as the potential for such types of exploitation in unregulated markets.

Despite the crash, RTR continues to maintain significant growth since launch, with a trading volume of around $130 million, according to data from Gecko Terminal. This incident serves as a cautionary tale for investors in the crypto space, emphasizing the need for thorough research and skepticism toward unverified celebrity claims or political endorsements.

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