Insider trading allegations trail TRUMP memecoin as Bitcoin community fire criticism shots

Donald Trump’s Solana-based memecoin faces insider trading allegations in the midst of its meteoric rise to hitting $42 billion in market cap. The allegations started after on-chain analytics firm, Bubblemaps identified a crypto wallet funded with $1 million four hours before the token officially launched.

suspicious trades on $TRUMP? 🚨

address 6QSc2 was funded 4 hours before launch and bought $1M in the FIRST minute

they sold $20M and still hold $96M 🧵 pic.twitter.com/BvCghd4EOr

— Bubblemaps (@bubblemaps) January 18, 2025

In its investigation, Bubblemaps revealed that the wallet purchased TRUMP worth $5.9 million in the first minute of its launch. After a while, the wallet sold $20 million worth of the token while retaining $96 million worth. The remaining tokens were then sent to various wallets that are now selling actively on various Solana decentralized exchanges (DEXs).

Insider trading allegations raise concerns

This method of trading has raised several concerns among retail traders in the crypto community. According to LookonChain, a wallet named LeBron flipped a $1 million USD Coin investment into $2 million by purchasing 4.52 million tokens minutes after it launched.

The issue of insider trading is the latest development to raise suspicion within the crypto community. Issues arising from the token’s allocation also persist.

The CEO of Web3 security firm QuillAudits, Preetam Rao, expressed concerns about the allocation structure and purpose.

“Eighty percent of the supply is locked for CIC Digital, a company owned by the Donald Trump Revocable Trust. This is the same entity that launched Trump NFT Trading Cards three years ago. The website says it’s ‘not an investment but a show of support,” he said.

Rao also added that the top 10 token holders share about 89% of the entire supply, and the developers are yet to share any details about the liquidity pool burn status. In addition, he noted that the launch was done in an Asian morning timezone, calling the president’s motive into question.

“Interestingly, the token was launched in an Asian morning time zone. It feels like this is just a way for Trump to make money,” he added.

Bitcoiners criticize launch as TRUMP goes mainstream 

The Bitcoin community has criticized Trump’s decision to launch his Solana-based memecoin, calling the move opportunistic and fundamentally against what Bitcoin stands for.

Swan Bitcoin vice president of revenue, Brandon Quittem, highlighted that the token is nothing like Bitcoin. “Trump coin is such an extreme case of shitcoinery that it will ultimately help differentiate Bitcoin further. Trumpcoin is a get-rich-quick scheme, it’s nothing like Bitcoin,” he said.

Vice president of research at Riot Platforms, Pierre Rochard also gave his opinion, noting that Bitcoin’s fundamental design is what sets it apart from these tokens. “The Bitcoin system as a whole is engineered to maximize long-term reliability, that’s why BTC isn’t just another ‘memecoin token’,” he said.

Meanwhile, the popularity of the token has surged after popular crypto exchanges Coinbase and Binance announced its listing.

According to CoinGecko, there has been some heavy activity related to the token in the last 24 hours. Bitget leads the pack at $864.9 million, followed by MEXC at $842.7 million, and KuCoin at $445.2 million. At the time of writing, TRUMP is trading at $64, up by 170% in the last 24 hours.

The surge also affected the Solana ecosystem, with its largest DEX Raydium seeing $25 million in fees and $2.85 million in revenue. According to DefiLlama, the figures are the highest recorded on the platform.

Moonshot also processed $400 million in volume over the last 12 hours, breaking other records and recording over 200,000 new users on-chain. Amid the frenzy, users were speculating the potential of a new USA coin in development. However, Eric Trump dismissed the rumor as fake news.

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