Eric Trump used his personal Twitter account to issue a "fraud alert" to his followers and threatened legal action after he noticed a cryptocurrency called "TrumpCoin" that he says is not in any way affiliated with the Trump family name.
The problem: TrumpCoin is not new.
That's right: TrumpCoin has been circulating on the crypto market since 2016 and was created by fans of former President Donald Trump, who billed it as “the #1 Patriot Cryptocurrency.”
The jokes about Eric Trump's "fraud alert" practically wrote themselves, too, coming the week after New York Attorney General Letitia James accused the Trump family business of engaging in “fraudulent or misleading” practices by misrepresenting the value of its assets.
In her filing, James argued the Trump Organization "has used delay tactics and litigation in an attempt to thwart a legitimate investigation into its financial dealings" for the last two years and sought a court order that would enforce testimonial subpoenas issued to former President Donald Trump, and two of his children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump.
Eric Trump had earlier come under fire after it emerged that he'd invoked the 5th Amendment protection against self-incrimination more than 500 times during a deposition with the New York Attorney General's office.
Eric Trump was swiftly mocked, with many reminding him that it is he and his own family who are currently under scrutiny for fraudulent activity.
Interestingly, Eric Trump's rant about cryptocurrency comes shortly after his stepmother, former First Lady Melania Trump, saw her online hat auction upended after the value of cryptocurrencies plummeted, dealing a heavy blow to investors worldwide.
Melania Trump had earlier announced she'd be auctioning off a hat for a starting bid of $250,000. Her personal website, MelaniaTrump.com, had only allowed bids to be made in cryptocurrency, a decision that backfired after prices for several cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and Ethereum, cratered.
Her website had promised that the proceeds from the auction of her personal items, including the wide-brimmed white hat she'd worn to meet French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, during an April 2018 state visit, would "provide foster care children with access to computer science and technology education."
Reporters with The Washington Post checked the hat auction two days before its indeterminate ending time and found that the starting had dropped, and continued to fluctuate, around $155,916. Ahead of the crash, bids had exceeded $275,000.
The auction was no doubt affected by the crash because it only accepted bids in Solana (SOL), one of the hardest hit, whose blockchain experienced an outage Friday and Saturday.
The auction appeared to close early Tuesday morning, with the hat going for $90,000 below the asking price.
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