Fake TRUMP and MELANIA tokens record $4.8M inflows in 24 hours

Memecoins bearing US President Donald Trump’s name surged in popularity in the days leading up to his inauguration, with opportunistic traders launching imitations of the official Trump Official (TRUMP) and Melania Official (MELANIA) tokens on the Solana network.

On Jan. 20, thousands of new memecoins with tradeable liquidity were launched on Solana, according to a Cointelegraph analysis of data from aggregator Birdeye.

Among them, 61 paraded themselves as official “TRUMP” or “MELANIA” coins through their ticker, official branding and project descriptions.

These imitation tokens raked in $4.8 million in inflows from 12,641 wallets within a day. For this analysis, only those explicitly mimicking the originals were counted, while obvious satire tokens or those that distanced themselves with disclaimers were excluded.

These tokens represent a sample size of the mass of fake tokens entering the market. Security firm Blockaid found that the number of malicious tokens launched with “Trump” in their name spiked from a daily average of 3,300 to 6,800 on the official TRUMP’s launch day.

Alan Orwick, co-founder of layer-1 blockchain project Quai Network, told Cointelegraph that these tokens reflect scammers exploiting high-profile brands while leveraging the hype behind the original tokens to fool unsuspecting investors.

“Many tokens exhibit signs of potential rug pulls, characterized by high trading volumes with little to no liquidity or fundamental value,” Orwick said.

Such copycat coins hint at artificially inflated numbers to attract buyers. Others had their liquidity drained by creators, leaving investors stranded with tokens that can’t be sold.

Investors risk losing funds to all 61 imitation tokens

At the time of the analysis, 38 fake TRUMP tokens traded on Solana DEXs, alongside 23 MELANIA tokens.

Among the fake TRUMP tokens, only nine had at least $10,000 in their liquidity pools. Low liquidity often hinders trading, exposing buyers to significant slippage and price manipulation.

Within the next 24 hours, six of these tokens had their liquidity pools completely drained, effectively rug-pulling investors. A seventh token saw its liquidity pool value plummet from $54,000 to just over $10,000.

Liquidity for the remaining two fake TRUMP tokens stayed intact. However, one experienced zero trading volume in the subsequent 24 hours, while the other had 99% of its supply controlled by the top two wallets.

Meanwhile, only four MELANIA token clones had liquidity above $10,000 at the time of analysis, while two others already had their liquidity removed.

Within 24 hours, one of the liquidity pools disappeared. The remaining three exhibited high ownership concentration, leaving smaller investors vulnerable to sell-offs by majority holders.

Some tokens may even mislead investors with high market capitalizations or fully diluted valuations (FDV), which Steno Research senior crypto analyst Mads Eberhardt warns are prone to manipulation.

“I would not trust any metrics associated with cryptocurrencies that imitate others,” Eberhardt told Cointelegraph. “They have strong incentives to artificially inflate their metrics to appear legitimate.”

Official TRUMP token surges before tanking

The official TRUMP memecoin launched on Jan. 17 and quickly exploded to a $71 billion FDV, briefly ranking it as the 15th-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

However, its FDV fell sharply to around $40 billion after Trump’s inauguration as president on Jan. 20, dropping it to the 28th spot in market cap rankings, according to CoinGecko.

President Trump has received criticism on social media, with people accusing him of launching his memecoin just for the profits, with the subsequent MELANIA token doubling down on the trend. 

“Basically, we used to have an informal rule that presidents wouldn’t start or run businesses that could pose a conflict of interest. Creating a bunch of memecoins and DeFi protocols opens the possibility to rampant violations of the emoluments clause,” Castle Island Ventures partner Nic Carter said on X.

“Good bye whatever hope the crypto industry had of legitimizing itself,” said billionaire Dogecoin (DOGE) advocate Mark Cuban.

Related: Insider trading allegations surface as TRUMP memecoin floods Solana DEXs

So far, TRUMP and MELANIA are the only official tokens to be launched, but some have taken to creating tokens bearing the names of other family members as well, reportedly leading to additional losses.

According to onchain analytics firm Lookonchain, an investor lost nearly $1 million on a token branded as BARRON, referencing one of Trump’s sons.

Investors were falling victim to fake Trump tokens even before his election victory in November 2024. In August, a fake Trump token reached $150 million in trading volume before Eric Trump publicly denied its authenticity or any family connection.

Speculators bank on the next Trump memecoin lottery

The crypto wallet tied to CIC Digital, the Trump entity holding 80% of the official TRUMP supply, has been receiving transfers of tokens named after other Trump family members.

One labeled itself as “Official Ivanka Trump,” which spurred speculation of a new official memecoin launch poised to create more overnight millionaires, though there has been no official confirmation on the authenticity of these projects.

Scammers thrive on FOMO (fear of missing out), targeting inexperienced investors with tokens tied to trending events, Quai Network’s Orwick said. These schemes often pressure buyers into rash decisions, leaving them with worthless assets.

Meanwhile, recent activities from the Trump-affiliated decentralized finance platform World Liberty Financial (WLF) have further fueled speculation. 

On Jan. 19, blockchain data revealed that WLF had 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 the subject of imitations, with fake websites selling various products to scam victims, including fake tokens and dummy financial services.

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