Opportunistic traders flooded the market with counterfeit tokens of the official Trump Official (TRUMP) and Melania Official (MELANIA) coins on the Solana network in the days leading up to the inauguration of US President Donald Trump. Birdeye’s data show that thousands of new meme coins with tradeable liquidity were released on Solana on January 20. Among these, 61 tokens closely resembled the original TRUMP and MELANIA branding, with identical ticker symbols, logos, and descriptions. Within a single day, these tokens raised $4.8 million from 12,641 wallets.
The analysis focused solely on direct impersonators, excluding satirical tokens and those who explicitly distanced themselves with disclaimers. The vast quantity of bogus tokens flooding the market is only a small portion of the total. Be wary of numerous counterfeit Trump tokens. On Solana, con artists recently extorted $4.8 million from 12,641 wallets containing forged Trump and Melania coins. The majority of the 61 copycats were typical rug pulls, with low liquidity, large numbers, and whales hoarding 99 percent of the supply
. — January 21, 2025, Mario Nawfal’s Roundtable (@RoundtableSpace) The number of malicious tokens bearing the name “Trump” increased from a daily average of 3,300 to 6,800 on the day that the official TRUMP token was released, according to a report by Web3 security firm Blockaid.
Scammers are taking advantage of the excitement surrounding legitimate tokens and the visibility of high-profile launches to deceive investors, as Alan Orwick, co-founder of layer-1 blockchain project Quai Network, explained. Orwick elaborated: “Many tokens show signs of potential rug pulls, such as high trading volumes and little to no fundamental value or liquidity.” Trading volume is artificially increased by many of these counterfeit tokens to entice unsuspecting buyers, while rug-pull schemes drain liquidity and leave investors with worthless holdings are employed by others.
Investor funds could be drained by any of the 61 imitation tokens. On Solana decentralized exchanges (DEXs), 38 fake TRUMP tokens and 23 fake MELANIA tokens were trading at the time of the analysis. Only nine of the fake TRUMP tokens had liquidity greater than $10,000, which is a crucial threshold for stable trading. Buyers are exposed to financial risks as a result of price manipulation and high slippage caused by low liquidity. These con artists are getting better. If you look at the wallet address of the person who deployed the $TRUMP token on the $TRUMP token page on Solscan, you’ll notice that there are a lot of DeFi Activities, which would seem to indicate that they are trading
. — on January 20, 2025, by buna (@3unn_e) Six of these tokens had their liquidity completely depleted within a 24-hour period, effectively pulling investors under the rug. The liquidity of another token decreased from $54,000 to just over $10,000. One of the remaining two TRUMP tokens remained unmoved and did not see any trading activity; the other, on the other hand, only had two wallets holding 99 percent of its supply, raising concerns about potential sell-offs by major holders.
Similarly, at the time of analysis, only four MELANIA token imitators had liquidity above $10,000, and two had already been drained. Another MELANIA token went bankrupt within a day, leaving only three pools with liquidity. All three pools had a high ownership concentration, putting smaller investors at risk. To deceive investors, fraudsters frequently manipulate token metrics, such as market capitalization or fully diluted valuations (FDV), to create a false sense of legitimacy.
According to Mads Eberhardt, a senior crypto analyst at Steno Research, such figures are frequently used to entice unsuspecting buyers. Eberhardt declared: “Any metrics associated with cryptocurrencies that imitate others would not be trusted by me. In order to appear legitimate, they have strong incentives to artificially inflate their metrics.” Scam Token Promotions Using Popular X Accounts By promoting bogus tokens that are erroneously associated with Donald Trump, malicious actors have attempted to take advantage of the launch of the TRUMP meme coin.
The X account TrumpDailyPosts, which posts Trump’s Truth Social updates, was apparently hacked to promote fake tokens like POWER and WIN in one instance. The account posted fake screenshots and contract addresses that suggested
Trump was in favor of these tokens. Some people think the posts were made with intention rather than being the result of a hack. Opportunists have also fueled rumors that Trump’s team will release additional tokens, in addition to these immediate scams. The rumor that a USA coin would launch on January 24 was quickly disproven by Trump’s son, Eric Trump, by one X account. — January 18, 2025, Eric Trump (@EricTrump) Similar unsubstantiated claims have been made regarding potential Ethereum token launches related to Trump.
BlockAid has urged the crypto industry to implement stronger security measures at the development level rather than relying solely on user vigilance in response to these fraudulent activities. BlockAid argues that enhancing the security infrastructure of crypto firms and developer practices is a more effective strategy for fostering trust and driving broader adoption, despite the fact that users are frequently advised to exercise caution. Launch of the MELANIA Token Accused of Making Profits On social media, many people have criticized President Trump for launching his meme coin solely for profit. The MELANIA token’s release added fuel to this argument.
