Donald Trump’s recently launched memecoin has sparked a wave of copycat tokens, with his official digital wallet receiving over 700 spam coins falsely implying they have been “endorsed” by either him, or members of his family.
According to a Financial Times analysis released on Friday, 736 different memecoins have been deposited into Trump’s official wallet over the past three weeks. Of those, almost 200 include names like “OFFICIAL TRUMP” and “OFFICIAL MELANIA,” while none of them are actually linked to President Trump in any way.
Memecoin creators have leveraged a feature of the Solana blockchain, where Trump’s tokens are based on, that allows anyone to create and send new coins to another user’s wallet, without a proficiency in coding.
One example of a platform within the network is pump.fun, which is currently facing a barrage of lawsuits for allegedly launching tokens affiliated with “pump and dump” schemes. This has led to a flood of unsolicited tokens bearing the names of Trump, his family members, and even his allies, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Fake tokens include Trump family names and unusual transactions
FT’s research found that of the 192 tokens using Trump’s name or those of his family members, 167 are copycats, and 67 use the word “official.” Additionally, 35 tokens reference Musk, while dozens include names like Barron, Ivanka, Eric, and Melania.
Among the copycat tokens, liquidity, which analysts sometimes use to determine a token’s feasibility, is a major issue. The January 19-launched token “OFFICIAL BARRON TRUMP,” for instance, is nominally valued at $6 billion based on the last transaction price, according to Solscan data.
However, the token has seen no trades since January 22, and its largest recorded transaction was just $242. As of the time of this publication, the memecoin was trading at $0.099174.
Backlash over Trump family memecoin
The decision by Trump and former First Lady Melania Trump to launch their own memecoins has had the crypto community in angst for weeks. Experts warn that by associating himself with such a speculative market, Trump is inviting scammers to target crypto investors with fake coins.
“By creating a memecoin, Trump has opened the floodgates to deception and, at a minimum, to rampant speculation,” said Eswar Prasad, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He noted that investors who buy copycat coins are exposed to “unimaginable financial risks.”
In a January 18 X post, Web 3 and Crypto commentator Brian Krassenstein wrote on X that within just two days of launch, which fell on President Trump’s inauguration day, investors dumping the Trump token led to a staggering $30 billion in lost paper wealth.
This is disgusting:
Trump just launched the $Trump memecoin on Solana.
He also is allocating 80%, YES 80% of the entire market of the coin to The Trump Organization, and Fight Fight Fight LLC.
But… but… but… Hunter Biden worked for an oil company. pic.twitter.com/lv8X8uAjzt
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) January 18, 2025
Furthermore, Trump and his family have already started receiving lawsuits for the tokens. On February 5, watchdog group Public Citizen filed a complaint with the Department of Justice and the Office of Government Ethics, alleging that Trump may have violated federal laws prohibiting sitting presidents from soliciting personal gifts.
According to the complaint, Trump promoted his meme token on both X and Truth Social on January 20 and 21 after being sworn in as POTUS.
Trump is selling his meme coin as a way for people to “show their support.”
He’s scamming his supporters and getting rich while doing it.
Our co-president @Lisa_PubCitizen explains why this is a MAJOR ethical issue. pic.twitter.com/7T59noeloI
— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) February 6, 2025
Public Citizen argues that because the token is marketed as a “meme” with no inherent value or investment return, buyers are essentially giving Trump money, which could legally constitute a gift.
The US Constitution’s Emoluments Clause prohibits presidents from accepting money or gifts from foreign governments. However, given crypto’s decentralized and largely anonymous nature, there is no clear way to determine whether foreign entities are purchasing Trump’s token.
Public Citizen warns that this lack of transparency could allow foreign actors to quietly funnel money to Trump under the guise of memecoin transactions, with no system in place to detect or prevent such activity.
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