Author: Zen, PANews
In the conservative political circle of the United States, Ryan Fournier has become famous as a student organization leader and Trump supporter, but in the world of cryptocurrency, as a "crypto novice", he has become the focus of a series of controversial events.
From the recent rapid collapse of the "TIKTOK" memecoin to the suspected hype of the "Restore The Republic" (RTR) token in the name of Trump, Fournier has repeatedly appeared at the center of the storm. Perhaps due to a translation problem, the Chinese community thought he was Trump's bodyguard and called this meme coin "Bodyguard Coin".
Who is Ryan Fournier?
Ryan Fournier is an American conservative activist, political commentator, co-founder and national chairman of Students for Trump. As a star figure in MAGA, he is known for his "vanguard" image in social media to support Trump. For example, Fournier launched a boycott of Walmart in 2018 because the company sold T-shirts with the words "Impeach 45" (Impeach the 45th President, Trump).
In 2015, while attending Campbell University in North Carolina, Fournier co-founded Students for Trump with John Lambert, an organization that aims to mobilize students to support Donald Trump's presidential campaign. As the national chairman of the organization, Ryan Fournier actively participated in related activities and soon became the youth representative of the MAGA camp.
However, in 2021, John Lambert was sentenced to 13 months in prison by a federal judge for operating a fake law firm. Although Ryan Fournier allegedly helped John Lambert co-create the fake law firm in 2016, according to a document filed by federal prosecutors, he was not prosecuted because he had been assisting federal law enforcement since around April 2018. However, in November 2023, Fournier was arrested in Johnston County, North Carolina on suspicion of domestic violence, accused of grabbing his girlfriend's right arm and pistol whipping her.
Fournier: I sold 50% of my memecoin, but I didn’t commit fraud
Last Sunday, when TikTok resumed its online operation in the United States, Ryan Fournier said in X Space that he had teamed up with a memecoin trader, Asta, to launch a TikTok-themed memecoin "TIKTOK". Asta claimed to be responsible for the creation of the token and sent 50% of the supply to Fournier, retaining 1% for himself.
Perhaps influenced by the "super surge" performance of TRUMP and MELANIA tokens, the value of TikTok also soared rapidly after its launch, with the market value soaring to nearly $90 million. During this period, Fournier posted a screenshot of his account holdings on the X platform, showing that the amount was as high as $19 million. At the same time, Asta also wrote excitedly on X: "I sent 50% of TIKTOK to Fournier, which is basically my entire supply. I just want to start a cool movement, and now the market value of the token has reached $60 million. If I hold the token, it would be really cool."
After Asta's post, Fournier immediately sold all his TikTok tokens. "Right after I posted, he sold all his stock. I don't know what to say." Less than 10 minutes after the last post, Asta posted another post to express his disappointment. According to a wallet starting with 9H that Fournier had previously confirmed, he exchanged 505 million TIKTOK tokens for SOL worth about $700,000 at 20:28 UTC on Sunday. This operation caused the price of TIKTOK tokens to plummet to zero.
The incident sparked strong dissatisfaction in the community, and many people condemned Fournier's behavior. Fournier defended himself by saying that Asta suddenly sold TIKTOK first, and then I followed suit. "So I don't know what happened... I think that guy is a liar, I think he just scammed me, and I followed him."
Fournier also repeatedly insisted that he was new to the cryptocurrency space and that some of the terminology was confusing. "You are talking to a newbie in the cryptocurrency space. I don't even know if I can sell anything." Fournier denied profiting from sales in X Space, claiming that he was "almost at a loss" after buying and then selling tokens. He also posted on X that he would stay away from cryptocurrencies in the future until he had a better understanding of who to trust because he looked forward to working for President Trump's new administration. However, in Space, he bragged about his connection to Trump's cryptocurrency adviser.
When someone took out a screenshot of Fournier showing off his holdings, Fournier responded: "Yes, you can look at my account, and that number is indeed accurate. Because the person who created the token obviously manipulated the price. I thought that number was true." This response was criticized and ridiculed by many traders, who said that Fournier was really an insatiable clown. "Fournier did not understand the slippage mechanism of cryptocurrency trading. He thought he could get the total amount shown on the interface after selling, but he actually only got a small part of the funds."
"He said he would never sell it and that he was contacting Tik Tok. This guy really stole so much money." Asta, another protagonist of the incident, also criticized Fournier in his response. Although there is no evidence that Asta made a lot of profit from the incident, as the "culprit", the community's attitude towards him is also mostly critical, and many people said "You should also go to jail."
In fact, as a newcomer to the crypto world, although Fournier has only been exposed to cryptocurrencies for a short time, this is not the first time he has caused controversy.
RTR Token Incident: Using Trump’s Name to Cause Controversy
Half a year ago, when the Trump family launched its own DeFi project to enter the cryptocurrency circle, Fournier caused a controversy.
"We are about to shake up the cryptocurrency world with something big. Decentralized finance is the future, don't fall behind." In August 2024, Trump's two sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., tweeted one after another, expressing their love and support for cryptocurrency and announcing major industry events. Since then, the "World Liberty Financial" project has been officially put on the agenda, which also means that Trump not only verbally supports cryptocurrency, but also wants to be deeply involved in it.
Just as the industry's confidence was boosted, rumors suddenly appeared on the X platform that the memecoin project Restore The Republic (RTR) was related to Trump himself, and the source of this "inside information" was Ryan Fournier. Another well-known kol @SizeChad released a video saying: "If they don't buy RTR tokens, their T value will be very low" (T value is a metaphor for testosterone value, used to symbolize masculinity). This slogan of "real men should buy RTR tokens" is also consistent with Trump's preference for emphasizing personal "strength" and "energetic" to show masculinity.
After the news spread, RTR began to stage a ride-on market, and its token price began to fall sharply after a sharp rise. Suspected insiders made a profit of $3.8 million by trading Restore The Republic (RTR) through four wallets. However, the team behind the Restore The Republic X account stated on X Sunday that Fournier was not involved in the project and had not received any RTR tokens from the team. They wrote in the statement: "Ryan is not a member of the team and has never been."
After Eric Trump discovered the rumor, he strongly denied the token had any connection with his family on X and condemned Fournier. Once the rumor was dispelled, the price of RTR's token plummeted by 95%. Fournier and @SizeChad also deleted the tweets that had previously promoted the token.
In addition, Donald Trump Jr. also came out to deny the long-standing rumors that the Trump family would launch a meme coin. He hinted that his family is planning a new blockchain project and said that the project is "much bigger" than simply launching another meme coin.
However, the magical weekend that just passed told everyone, including Trump Jr., the answer: in terms of scale, the Trump family would be much bigger if they simply launched Meme coins one by one.
