Written by: Protos
Compiled by: Chopper, Foresight News
On Monday, Martin Shkreli announced on X that he would join the Solana Meme coin launch platform Pump.fun and begin live-streaming his trading, a post that garnered over 700,000 views. (Note: Martin Shkreli, nicknamed 'Pharma Bro', is a highly controversial former pharmaceutical executive and hedge fund manager in the United States, infamous for drastically hiking the price of a life-saving drug. After serving prison time for securities fraud, he has frequently launched Meme coins, causing market turbulence.)
The official Pump.fun account promptly reposted congratulations, stating that his account achieved a 6263% profit in just one day, with wallet assets reaching $1.6 million.
At the time of writing, CITRINI, which he created, and MARTIN, named after him, have both plummeted at least 94% from their previous day's highs.
Earlier this month, Martin Shkreli made headlines for shorting Moderna, garnering significant attention from traders. Unfortunately, shortly after he claimed 'I casually shorted this stock at $80', Moderna announced positive Phase III clinical trial results, causing its stock price to surge significantly. Moderna's current stock price has precisely doubled from Martin Shkreli's $80 entry point.
MARTIN, CITRINI, DJT & MSI
A chart showing a continuous price decline is nothing new for Martin Shkreli. In 2024, another Solana Meme coin associated with him, DJT, similarly experienced a wallet dump and price crash. In 2022, an Ethereum token linked to him, MSI, performed even worse. The script of followers buying in and losing over 90% has repeated itself.
CITRINI was launched by Martin Shkreli during a live stream. Multiple viewers described it as more of a farce, yet it resulted in real losses for many. From yesterday to today, he continued live-streaming his trades on X and his Pump.fun profile page, with tens of thousands of viewers watching. On the other side of these trades were mostly anonymous wallets attempting to profit from the short-term pump generated by his endorsement.
The Meme coin MARTIN launched on Monday, peaking at $0.0031 that same day. By Tuesday morning, the price had fallen sharply, with its market capitalization shrinking to approximately $150,000. CITRINI followed a similar pattern, its price dropping from $0.0031 to $0.000087, a decline of 97%.
The Repeated Loss-making Script
In the comments section of Martin Shkreli's announcement post, users posted screenshots showing 95% losses, accusing him of endorsing scam projects.
Faced with complaints on social media, Martin Shkreli maintained his consistent, vague, and slick communication style, often replying with short sentences and acknowledging no wrongdoing. When a follower lamented their losses in the comments, he showed no remorse, simply retorting: 'How did you lose 97%?'
Countless followers have lost money on Martin Shkreli-related Meme coins, and nearly every one of his responses leaves room for ambiguous excuses.
CITRINI is not the first token associated with Martin Shkreli to crash. In July 2022, he launched Martin Shkreli Inu (MSI), which reached an all-time high near $0.0000343. On August 12 of the same year, a wallet linked to Martin Shkreli dumped over 160 billion MSI tokens in one go. According to Bloomberg, the token price plummeted over 90% in a single day. Martin Shkreli claimed his account was hacked and he was not the seller. Regardless of the truth, MSI's current price is down over 95% from its all-time high.
Two years later, in June 2024, Martin Shkreli was exposed as the key figure behind another Meme coin, DJT. This Solana Meme coin surged on rumors of Barron Trump's involvement, though Trump's son never publicly stated participation. On August 6, 2024, a wallet associated with the contract deployer dumped approximately $2 million worth of DJT, wiping out the majority of its $55 million total market capitalization within minutes. DJT now trades below $0.000033, down over 98% from its all-time high.
