Ivanka Trump said Thursday a meme coin bearing her name is “fake” and likely poses risks to investors, as other tokens named after and promoted by her father, President Donald Trump, and First Lady Melania Trump dropped in value days after they went viral.
The president’s daughter said she has “no involvement” with the token.
Ivanka Trump, in a post on X, said the “fake crypto coin” $IVANKA is “being promoted without my consent or approval,” noting her legal team is “reviewing” measures to stop the “continued misuse of my name.”
$IVANKA appears to have launched on the Ethereum blockchain in May 2024 and has yet to approach $0.01, as the coin’s developer has self-reported a market cap of $345,460 with a circulation of more than 420.6 billion coins, according to CoinMarketCap.
The “fake coin” poses risks of “deceiving consumers and defrauding them of their hard-earned money,” Ivanka Trump warned, adding she has “no involvement” with the token, whose use of her name and likeness is a “violation of my rights.”
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Other seemingly unauthorized tokens named after Trump’s family members have circulated. A meme coin featuring Barron Trump’s name and image also appears to have launched on the Solana blockchain in July 2024. The coin has a self-reported circulation of 42 quadrillion and a market cap of just over $133,000, though neither Barron Trump nor any other member of the Trump family has acknowledged any connection to the token.
The “Official Trump” token, or $TRUMP, quickly rose to a $15 billion market cap Sunday—two days after its launch—before dropping in value. The meme coin dropped by more than 9% over the last 24 hours of trading to $35.73 as of Thursday afternoon, with a market cap of $7.1 billion.
The price of Melania Trump’s official meme token $Melania fell by 27.5% on Thursday to just below $2.70, with a market cap of $474.4 million. The token has fallen about 47% since reaching a high of $5.09 on Monday, following its Sunday debut.
Donald Trump announced the launch of his meme coin, $TRUMP, just days before his inauguration. The token, hosted on the Solana blockchain, has been limited to a supply of 200 million coins at launch before expanding to 1 billion over the next three years, according to the coin’s website. The Trump Organization—where Ivanka Trump once served as a vice president—and its affiliates own the remaining tokens and will receive an undisclosed amount of revenue derived from trading activity. He has faced criticism for his token’s release from some members of the crypto industry. Nic Carter, a founding partner of the crypto firm Castle Island Ventures, told Politico the coin’s developer was “plumbing new depths of idiocy with the meme coin launch.” An unnamed lobbyist told the outlet the coin’s launch was a “horrible look” for the industry, which they said was working to “make the case that we’re not a bunch of hucksters, scammers and fraudsters.” Ryan Selkis, founder of the crypto firm Messari, called for Donald Trump to “fire whoever recommended going forward” with the $MELANIA launch.
Donald Trump’s token comes as his latest push for the crypto industry, after claiming he wanted the U.S. to become the “crypto capital of the planet.” He has said he would use executive powers to reduce the regulatory burdens facing crypto firms and declare cryptocurrency as a policy priority, allowing the federal government to establish a bitcoin reserve. He has cast himself as a more crypto-friendly chief executive than President Joe Biden, whose Securities and Exchange Commission brought cases against several major crypto firms, alleging violations of securities law.