In a post on X, TikTok dismissed the allegations as false and irresponsible, stating that the claim about its owners buying Trump coins misrepresents even the contents of a letter the congressman signed the previous month.
TikTok denies accusations that it bought $300M of Trump's meme coin
Source Cryptopolitan
TikTok has issued a forceful rebuttal after claims surfaced that the company, or its Chinese-linked parent, spent $300 million acquiring President Trump’s controversial meme coin, $TRUMP.
Congressman Brad Sherman recently accused TikTok of using a covert investment to curry political favor, alleging the platform bought large amounts of the token to support Trump. TikTok released a statement calling the claims “blatantly false and irresponsible,” denying any investment of that size or nature.
Congressman Sherman’s comments came as reports emerged that Trump signed a new executive order to postpone the ban or sale of TikTok.
President Trump’s new executive order on TikTok draws criticism
The latest delay was the third postponement, granting TikTok 90 additional days to find a buyer or be banned in the US, reports online said.
President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that he had just signed the executive order extending the deadline for shutting down TikTok for 90 days (September 17, 2025). He thanked the company for its attention to this matter.
Concerning this, Sherman pointed out that US laws only permit one extension and insisted Trump’s failure to enforce the ban on TikTok was illegal.
Sherman’s insinuations may have pointed back to when TikTok-linked GD Culture Group declared its intention to purchase $300 million worth of “Trump meme coin” and Bitcoin in May.
However, Nasdaq-listed GD Culture does not appear to have any known direct links to TikTok or its parent company, ByteDance, but it makes AI-powered content for TikTok part of its main business.
Apart from Sherman, Mark Warner, a Democratic senator and the vice-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, raised concerns about Trump’s new executive order. Warner claimed that Trump avoided the law by using an executive order.
In a statement, he said that the Trump administration is once again breaking the law and disregarding its own national security reports about the dangers of a TikTok controlled by China.
Sherman claimed that Trump is making “Trump coins” for free, which means a $300 million bribe benefits him directly. This raised debate among individuals.
While some expressed skepticism over TikTok’s denial, many came to the company’s defense, criticizing Sherman’s accusations as unfounded. Others questioned the feasibility of creating a cryptocurrency without any cost.
Sherman urges lawmakers to ban crypto before it gains popularity in the US
In addition to criticizing Trump for his TikTok approach, Sherman has a history of anti-crypto stances; he called for a blanket ban on crypto in 2019.
In his remarks, Representative Sherman explained that lawmakers are responsible for acting before the “destructive cryptocurrency phenomenon” becomes widely used by Americans and for banning the purchase of cryptocurrencies by their citizens.
He argued that the threat posed by cryptocurrency could significantly change America’s role in global politics because it might weaken the strength of its official currency.
Sherman stated, “An awful lot of our international power stems from the fact that the dollar is the standard unit of international finance and transactions […] it is the announced purpose of the supporters of cryptocurrencies to take that power away from us.”
To show the dollar’s current dominance, Sherman pointed out that clearing through the New York Federal Reserve is still crucial to many of the world’s biggest markets, including oil prices.
The congressman described potential negative effects of a widespread adoption of crypto as a form of global value in a distributed way. He said that a digital currency, which is not tied to any one nation and is spread out, would place them in a situation where their major sanctions against Iran would no longer matter.
Sherman’s aggressive position on crypto primarily revolves around the possibility of cryptocurrencies replacing the US dollar.
The American government under Trump has taken a different approach to crypto, pledging to support stablecoins tied to the US dollar as a key part of the US’ plan to enhance the power of the dollar.
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