Students for Trump co-founder Ryan Fournier denies scamming followers over the "chaotic" collapse of a TikTok-themed meme coin

After seeing the staggering rise of Donald and Melania Trump's own coins, Fournier came up with the idea of one based on TikTok after the short-lived ban.

Students for Trump co-founder Ryan Fournier has claimed he was scammed out of millions of dollars by a meme coin trader - after boasting about making a fortune.

Fournier was part of the team behind the launch of the $Trump coin, which was created during the 2020 election to support Donald Trump.

After seeing the staggering rise of Trump's own coin, Fournier came up with the idea of one based on TikTok after the short-lived ban.

"I said screw it and let’s do it," explained the MAGA supporter, who got half of the supply after it was created by a meme coin trader known as 'Asta'.

Fournier went on to boast about making millions from the $TikTok coin, at one stage sharing a screenshot showing his supply was worth more than $19 million.

The coin's value skyrocketed to 18,000%, with a market capitalization of over $90 million, but as the price started to drop, Fournier decided to get out.

Fournier swapped 505 million TikTok tokens for approximately $700,000 worth of SOL, then issued a grovelling apology to his X followers.

On Sunday night, he tweeted: "Staying away from Crypto. I tweeted a few times today about $Trump and a newly created coin called $TikTok.

"I had someone reach out earlier, and they wanted to make a coin to support TikTok’s comeback. That turned out to be a chaotic mess, because I was scammed by said individual.

"I truly do apologize to everybody that was affected and putting money into that.

"I’m gonna stay away from the crypto stuff until I get a better understanding of who to trust. Be safe out there and make sure you’re protected."

Fournier was then confronted with a screenshot of his now deleted tweeting boasting about having $19m in his account.

That person also pointed to blockchain data, which they claimed showed that Fournier's sale happened when the coin was relatively stable.

He replied: "Yeah, you can look at my account and you will see that number was an accurate because whoever created the coin apparently spoofed it. I thought that number was accurate."

Asta came out with his side of the story, writing: "Almost everyone knows I sent 50% of TIKTOK to Ryan Fournier. It was all of my supply, and I just wanted to start a cool movement."

Later, he added: "Right after I posted that, he sold all of his supply. I don’t know what to say anymore."

Fournier went on an X spaces to deny making any money from the sales and claimed he was scammed.

"We’ll make it right. Whatever I have to do, if I have to give you guys $50,000 in cash, I’ll figure out a way to do it," he said, adding: "I feel ashamed of what happened today."