A congressman, Brad Sherman has alleged that TikTok bought $300 million worth of “Trump Coins” to secure the recent ban extension.
Sherman in a tweet on 19 June said the social media platform announced the purchase of the said coins, the funds from which purchase will go directly to president Donald Trump’s pocket.
The statement comes after Trump announced an extension of the ban on TikTok in the United States for another 90 days.
TikTok responds
In response to the allegation, TikTok has said the statement is “patently false” and contradictory.
The Biden administration had placed a ban on the short video sharing platform for allegedly violating rules and taking sides with China against the U.S.
Shortly after his inauguration however, Trump granted a 90 day extension of the ban, and this is the second time, an idea that doesn’t sit well with Congressman Sherman.
Trump and his wife also launched memecoins named after them as TRUMP and MELANIA almost simultaneously after he took office in january.
Democrat lawmakers have also kicked against the idea of the Trumps launching memecoins and accused the family of ripping the public off using their memecoins, an allegation that Trump denied, saying he does not make any profit from the memecoins.
Now, Sherman claims that granting another extension to TikTok is illegal, even much worse if it’s because TikTok bought some of their memecoins.
‘Trump Coins’ performance
At the time of this report, both TRUMP and MELANIA are doing very badly like most crypto assets right now.
TRUMP has lost over 7% in the last week, and MELANIA is even worse, having lost over 8% in the last seven days and 2% in the last hour.
This poor performance could be proof that TikTok made no announcement of the purchase of these tokens which would have triggered at least a short term rally.
ReadNext
