Launch of Trump Solana Meme Token Marred by Conflicts of Interest and Nepotism Allegations

Daniel Prince, host of the Once Bitten podcast, has recently alleged that conflicts of interest and nepotism were part of the motivation for choosing Solana as the chain for launching TRUMP, the official meme token of the U.S. president.

Conflicts of Interest and Nepotism Involved in TRUMP Token Launch on Solana

Daniel Prince, host of the Once Bitten podcast, has alleged the launch of TRUMP, the official U.S. president meme token, on top of Solana was influenced by several factors.

Prince alleges that the investments of David Sacks, the soon-to-be-appointed crypto and artificial intelligence (AI) czar of the Trump administration, has indirect investments in Solana and the Solana ecosystem through Craft Ventures, a VC fund he co-founded in late 2017.

Craft Ventures invested in Multicoin Capital, a VC fund that led Solana’s Series A $20 million funding round in 2019.

Multicoin has invested not only in Solana, but also in several projects of the Solana ecosystem, including Jito, Marginfi, Metaplex, Serum, Solscan, and Wormhole.

Also, Lyndon Rive, one of the angel investors in Solana, is one of the cousins of Elon Musk, who is also part of Trump’s administration as co-head of the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.)

Prince also pointed out Rive was co-founder and CEO of Solarcity, a solar solutions installer company founded in 2006 which faced a problematic acquisition process.

Tesla acquired the company in 2016 for $2.6 billion, a purchase seen as a bailout by a group of Tesla shareholders. The dispute was taken to court and Musk won, denying that he had pressured the Tesla board for the deal to go through.

On the launch of TRUMP on Solana, Prince stated:

So, could it be at all claimed that maybe, just maybe, there is a conflict of interest, insider trading, and nepotism involved in launching TRUMP?

The launch of TRUMP stunned the crypto world, scaling to be almost the top 14th cryptocurrency in record time. However, at the time of writing, TRUMP is the 21st largest cryptocurrency project, registering trading volumes of over 44 billion in the last 24 hours.

Read more: TRUMP Token Stuns Crypto World, Becomes 14th Largest by Market Cap in Record Time

However, not all believe TRUMP’s launch is good for the crypto environment. Skybridge Capital’s Anthony Scaramucci, Bloomberg’s Intelligence Eric Balchunas, and others believe that TRUMP has negative implications for the crypto industry moving forward.

Read more: Trump’s Meme Coin Sparks Uproar: Anthony Scaramucci Calls It ‘Bad for the Industry’