Radhika Parashar
- Charlie Kirk was tragically shot in Utah on September 10
- Altcoins branded after his identity have flooded the market raising scam concerns
- Investors are suggested to tread cautiously
Conservative activist Charlie Kirk was tragically shot dead on September 10 while delivering a speech at the Utah Valley University. The 31-year-old right-wing political activist was a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump. Over the last few months, he emerged among the loudest voices in U.S.’ ongoing pro-crypto regulatory overhaul.
Following Kirk’s demise, a number of crypto tokens branded after his identity seem to have flooded the market.
A token dubbed “RIPCharlieKirk (CHARLIE)” created on September 10 surged in market cap from $22,000 to $5 million within the first few hours of its launch. Following the surge, the token also dropped bringing its valuation to $1.1 million at the time of writing. Presently, the token is trading at $0.00108688, data by Pump.fun showed on Thursday, September 11.
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A similar token called “JusticeforCharlie” also managed to amass the capitalization of over $1 million, presently trading at $0.001080, DEXScreener showed.
The altcoin index on CoinMarketCap throws 50 results against the search on “Charlie Kirk” — raising scam concerns.
Source: CoinMarketCap
Members from the Web3 circle have criticized the bulk of Kirk-themed tokens that are being circulated in the market within less than 24 hours of his demise.
Followng President Trump’s return to the White House, Kirk had shown a stunch support around Trump’s vision of making the U.S. the crypto capital of the world. Last year, during the Trump’s presidential campaign, Kirk had reportedly said that every student should at least have the basic understanding on how Bitcoin works.
In June this year, he appeared on a The Iced Coffee Hour podcase where he had spoken in favour of the U.S. creating a Bitcoin reserve.
“Bitcoin is a scarce, legitimately scarce resource that it’s probably going to go nowhere but up. So [Michael] Saylor makes a very provocative argument that Bitcoin could go up 10x over the next 10 years or something like that, which therefore if we start a Bitcoin strategic reserve,” he had said, predicting that BTC is progressing towards hitting the million dollar price point.
President Trump is mourning the death of his ally and has ordered the national flag to be at half mast.
Media reports have pointed out that Kirk’s death may have eliminated a significant voice from the conservatives around the outlook of the U.S. around crypto. The case remains under investigation while the culprit still remains at large.
