Restore the Republic Scam Token Snags Millions From Investors

In a whirlwind of speculation and confusion, the cryptocurrency known as “Restore the Republic” (RTR) soared to astonishing heights and plummeted to devastating lows—all within less than 24 hours of its debut on the Solana blockchain. The token’s meteoric rise was driven by rumors linking it to former President Donald Trump’s son, Eric Trump, who had earlier teased a “big announcement” related to cryptocurrency on his X account.

On Thursday, as RTR made its appearance, it quickly gained traction due to online chatter that the token might be the Trump family’s official foray into the crypto space. Ryan Fournier, chair of Students for Trump, fueled the speculation by tweeting, “rumor has it that the official Trump coin is out…called Restore the Republic.” This single statement ignited a frenzy among both cryptocurrency enthusiasts and Trump supporters, with over $155 million pouring into RTR within six hours of trading. The token’s value skyrocketed by more than 120%, reaching a peak of $0.022, according to data from CoinGecko.

However, the rapid ascent was short-lived. Just an hour after reaching its peak, RTR’s price plummeted by over 80%. The cause of the dramatic collapse? A tweet from Eric Trump himself, who warned his followers about “fake tokens” and clarified that the Trump family had not announced any official cryptocurrency project. “I love memecoins and that culture,” Donald Trump Jr. added in an interview shared on X, “But I just have to make sure that people understand that you can’t conflate one thing with another.” He urged the public not to associate any cryptocurrency with the Trump family unless directly confirmed by them.

The swift unraveling of RTR left many investors reeling. Ryan Fournier, whose initial tweet had contributed to the hype, later posted that he was misinformed by sources claiming the Trump family would back the token. “That is why I said rumor,” he explained, adding that he was not deeply involved in the cryptocurrency space and had no direct connection to the RTR project.

Further complicating the story, some members of the crypto community pointed to Kanpai Labs, the creator of the Kanpai Pandas non-fungible tokens (NFT), as having promoted RTR prior to its launch. The lab’s creator, known only as “Bags,” alleged that the Trump family was originally involved in the token’s creation and had even selected the launch date. However, he claimed that the family “hard rugged us” before abruptly deleting the post.

This isn’t the first time a Trump-themed cryptocurrency has stirred the market. Tokens like Super Trump (STRUMP) and MAGA (TRUMP) have seen notable activity, with market capitalizations of $14 million and $140 million, respectively. Both tokens experienced price surges as RTR gained attention, highlighting the volatility and speculative nature of Trump-related cryptocurrencies.

The RTR debacle underscores the dangers of the crypto market, particularly with the rise of so-called “rug pulls,” where scam tokens vanish as quickly as they appear, leaving investors with nothing. The incident has reignited calls for stronger regulatory oversight to protect the public from fraudulent schemes that capitalize on high-profile names and cultural moments.

Perhaps the RTR episode serves as a stark reminder of the risks inherent in allowing anyone to randomly create a token with no guardrails in place to protect the general public, if a person or group creates a token on Ethereum or Solana it is live and in color for getting listed on a crypto exchange due to the protocols already in place on exchanges. The beauty of decentralized finance leaves a gap for bad actors to exploit these avenues, it is up to the crypto community to put some type of guardrails in place and work closely with exchanges to protect not only the general public but also the growth of the crypto community as a whole.

Terry Jones
Digital Assets Desk