Insider trading allegations surface as TRUMP memecoin floods Solana DEXs

Suspicious trading activity has emerged around US President-elect Donald Trump’s Solana-based Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin as its market cap soared to $42 billion, drawing a frenzy of retail investors.On Jan. 18, Bubblemaps, an onchain analytics firm, investigated a crypto wallet funded with $1 million four hours before the TRUMP token’s launch. Onchain data reveals that the wallet purchased $5.9 million worth of TRUMP tokens in the first minute of its launch and later sold $20 million while retaining $96 million in tokens. TRUMP tokens were then routed through a wallet and distributed to 10 other wallets, now actively selling on Solana decentralized exchanges (DEXs). This pattern of trade has raised concerns about potential market manipulation as the TRUMP memecoin continues to dominate headlines.Preetam Rao, CEO of QuillAudits, a Web3 security company, expressed concerns about the TRUMP token’s 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,’” Rao said.Rao noted that the top 10 holders own 89.06% of the supply, and there’s no clarity on the liquidity pool burn status. “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 said.He told Cointelegraph:“We can see some insider traders involved, but I feel if the US government is supporting projects to set a roadmap for innovation in the country. Maybe it’s a rug pull, but it lays the foundation for innovation.”TRUMP memecoin goes mainstreamThe token’s popularity surged as major crypto exchanges Coinbase and Binance announced the listing of TRUMP.According to CoinGecko, TRUMP trading saw significant activity in the last 24 hours, with Bitget leading at $864.9 million, followed by MEXC at $842.7 million and KuCoin at $445.2 million. At the time of writing, TRUMP is up 194% in the last 24 hours, trading at $54.62.Meanwhile, Solana’s ecosystem saw a massive uptick in activity. Solana’s largest DEX, Raydium, captured $25.07 million in fees and $2.85 million in revenue — a record high for the platform, according to DefiLlama.The MEME trading tool GMGN processed $153 million in Solana transactions, earning $1.52 million in fees. The Moonshot crypto trading platform recorded $1.597 million in fees.Moonshot processed nearly $400 million in volume over the past 12 hours, breaking records for fiat on-ramp usage and bringing over 200,000 new users onchain.Amid the hype, some on X speculated about a potential “USA coin” as the next project. Eric Trump dismissed these rumors, clarifying that no such project was developing.Bitcoiners criticize Trump’s memecoin launchThe Bitcoin community has reacted strongly to Trump’s Solana-based memecoin, criticizing it as opportunistic and fundamentally at odds with Bitcoin’s principles.Brandon Quittem, vice president of revenue at Swan Bitcoin, posted on X, “Trump coin is such an extreme case of shitcoinery it will ultimately help differentiate Bitcoin further. Trumpcoin is a get-rich-quick scheme, it’s nothing like Bitcoin.”Pierre Rochard, vice president of research at Riot Platforms, emphasized Bitcoin’s design as fundamentally different.Will Cole, a Bitcoin advocate and head of product at Zaprite, called the memecoin “pump-and-dump-as-a-service. Wealth transfer from Gen Z and Millennials to Boomers. Brought to you by Ethereum and Solana.”