Ryan Fournier, co-founder and current chairman of Students for Trump, faces backlash after his involvement in a TikTok-themed meme coin sparked controversy.
Fournier allegedly did a rug pull, as his actions caused the TIKTOK meme coin to drop from $90 million to around $5 million in market cap.
The Meme Coin Frenzy Surrounding Trump is Getting Out of Hand
In a social media post, Fournier explained that he was approached by someone online with a proposal to create a coin supporting TikTok’s potential resurgence in the US. Fournier agreed to the idea and received 50% of the total token supply.
The coin’s value skyrocketed, with his holdings reportedly reaching a peak of $19 million as the price surged by nearly 18,000%.
As the coin’s value began to decline, Fournier decided to sell 505 million tokens, exchanging them for approximately $700,000 in SOL. His decision to sell triggered a crash in the coin’s price and wiped out significant liquidity.
“Ryan Fournier, with 1.2 million followers, says ‘I promise you I didn’t rug the shitcoin’. Buddy we see your wallet. It’s all on-chain. Their blinding greed is only surpassed by their blinding stupidity,” wrote Ben Hunt.
Fournier denied intentionally harming the project. He described his decision as driven by fear as the coin’s value dropped and attributed the controversy to his inexperience with cryptocurrencies. “I’m new to crypto and didn’t rug it,” he wrote in response to accusations on social media.
“I had someone reach out earlier, and they wanted to make a coin to support TikTok’s comeback. That turned out to be a chaotic mess, because I was scammed by said individual. I truly do apologize to everybody who was affected and putting money into that. I’m gonna stay away from the crypto stuff until I get a better understanding of who to trust,” wrote Fournier on X (formerly Twitter).
Whether intentional or not, this was definitely another rug pull. Blockchain data suggests the sell-off occurred while the coin’s price remained relatively stable.
It’s evident that the US president’s TRUMP and MELANIA meme coin created a wild frenzy in the market. Political figures and celebrities, who have very little knowledge of this complex industry, are attempting to launch their own tokens.
Meanwhile, scammers are leveraging this hype to claim more victims. Surveys showed that over 40% of the users who bought the TRUMP token are first-time crypto investors. So, these large numbers of consumers are almost the perfect victim for scammers.
It’s critical that users stay cautious in this field. Crypto is volatile, but meme coins are at the extreme end of this volatility. The risk of loss and scams is almost unavoidable.
Therefore, it’s important to scrutinize and vet any asset before making any investment.
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