Allegations of insider trading emerge as TRUMP memecoin floods Solana DEXs.

Suspicious trading activity has been seen around Donald Trump's Solana-based TRUMP memecoin, which is attracting a frenzy of retail investors as its market cap soars to $42 billion.

On January 18, Bubblemaps, an onchain analytics firm, investigated a crypto wallet backed by $1 million four hours before the TRUMP token launch.

Onchain data shows that the wallet bought $5.9 million worth of TRUMP tokens in the first minute of its launch and later sold $20 million worth of tokens, holding $96 million worth of tokens. TRUMP tokens have been taken in wallets and distributed to 10 other wallets, now actively traded on Solana Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs).

As TRUMP memecoin continues to dominate headlines, this trading style has raised concerns about market manipulation.

Pritam Rao, CEO of QuillAudits, a Web3 security company, expressed concern about the structure and purpose of the TRUMP token allocation.

“Eighty percent of the supply is locked to CIC Digital, a company owned by Donald Trump's Revocable Trust. This is the same entity that launched Trump NFT trading cards three years ago. The website is ‘not an investment but a show of support,' Rao said.

Rao said the top 10 holders own 89.06% of the supply and there is no clarity on the liquidity pool. “Interestingly, the token was launched in the Asian morning time zone. “It seems like this is just a way for Trump to make money,” he said.

He told Cointelegraph.

“We can see some insiders getting involved, but I feel like the US government is supporting projects to develop an innovation roadmap in the country. It might be a carpet drag, but it's laying the groundwork for innovation.”

Related: How did Donald Trump interact with crypto during his first term?

TRUMP memecoin goes mainstream

The popularity of the token increased as major crypto exchanges Coinbase and Binance announced the TRUMP list.

According to CoinGecko, the TRUMP business has seen the most activity in the last 24 hours, led by Bitget with $864.9 million, MEXC with $842.7 million, and KuCoin with $445.2 million. At the time of writing, TRUMP has increased 194% in the last 24 hours, trading at $54.62.

Meanwhile, the Solana ecosystem has seen a significant increase in activity. Solana's biggest DX Radium took in $25.07 million in payouts and $2.85 million in earnings — a record high for the platform, according to Defillama.

MEME trading platform GMGN received $1.52 million in fees for a $153 million Solana transaction. The Moonshot crypto trading platform recorded $1.597 million in payouts.

Moonshot has raised nearly $400 million in the past 12 hours, breaking fiat on-ramp usage records and bringing over 200,000 new users to the chain.

Amidst the hype, some have speculated that there might be a “US coin” about the next project at X. Eric Trump has denied these rumors, clarifying that no project is in development.

RELATED: Traders Hold Millions of Wallets as Trump Team Confirms Solana Memecoin Launch

Bitcoiners criticize Trump's memecoin launch

The Bitcoin community has reacted strongly to Trump's Solana-based memecoin, criticizing it as opportunistic and fundamentally against the principles of Bitcoin.

Brandon Quit, vice president of revenue at Swan Bitcoin, also posted on X, “The Trump coin is a serious case of shitcoinery that will ultimately help further identify Bitcoin. Trumpcoin is a get-rich-quick scheme, nothing like Bitcoin.

Pierre Rochard, vice president of research at Riot Platform, emphasized that Bitcoin's design is fundamentally different.

Will Cole, a Bitcoin advocate and head of product at Zaprite, describes memecoin as “pump-and-dump-as-a-service. The shift in wealth from Gen Z and Millennials to Boomers. Brought to you by Ethereum and Solana.

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