‘Pharma Bro’ or Barron? Debate about the brains behind Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency rages

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Donald Trump has aggressively courted the cryptocurrency community as part of his 2024 campaign, including meetings with bitcoin miners, fundraising in Silicon Valley and last month opening his campaign to crypto donations, a first for a major party candidate.

Now Trump, who in 2019 called bitcoin a currency “based on air,” is embroiled in his first crypto scandal, amid accusations that his youngest son Barron — or perhaps disgraced pharmaceutical executive Martin “Pharma Bro” Shkreli — is behind contains a cryptocurrency. “meme coin” called DJT, the same letters as the former president’s initials.

Earlier this week, vague rumors began circulating that the coin, which launched in May, would become the former president’s “official token,” sending the cryptocurrency’s value soaring.

As of Thursday afternoon, DJT’s value had risen by triple-digit percentages, reaching a market cap of more than $150 million.

The run on DJT, which shares a three-letter abbreviation with shares in the former president’s current media company, led to a feverish search into whether Trump or his campaign was behind the crypto efforts.

On Tuesday, Arkham, a market intelligence firm, offered a $150,000 bounty to the person who could prove who was behind DJT.

A day later, the company announced that a crypto analyst using the of two hedge funds, masterminded the operation.

The analyst shared screenshots of what he said were direct messages with Shkreli, in which the former pharmaceutical investor, known for driving up the price of cancer drugs, claimed: “I have over 1,000 pieces of evidence that I created with Barron,” a reference to Trump’s son.

ZachBXT also claimed that the coin was linked to a Discord user named Cameron Roxborough, who claimed to be a classmate and friend of Trump’s son.

A LinkedIn profile under that name shows Roxborough attends the same school in Florida where Barron Trump recently graduated.

After announcing the bounty, Shkreli claimed that he created the coin after being approached by Roxborough on behalf of Barron Trump, and that the former president had approved the idea.

The investor said in a live the Trump family.

“I can prove the involvement of Trump and/or the Trump family,” he later wrote on X.

The Trump family and the campaign have not commented publicly on the DJT coin.

The independent has contacted the Trump campaign and Roxborough for comment.