- More than 813,000 crypto wallets have lost a total of $2 billion after buying President Donald Trump’s memecoin, according to an assessment by Chainalysis commissioned by the New York Times. Meanwhile, the Trump Organization and its partners gained $100 million in trading fees. Since its Jan. 17 launch, $TRUMP has lost most of its value, which is now about $16 per share, down from its $75 peak.
Less than three weeks after its release, President Donald Trump’s memecoin has produced more losers than winners. For every dollar in trading fees the Trump crypto creators raked in, investors lost $20.
A total of 813,294 wallets holding cryptocurrency lost money through ownership of $TRUMP meme token shares in the 19 days since its launch, according to an analysis by cryptocurrency forensics company Chainalysis commissioned by the New York Times. The losses—accumulated as users either held onto shares of the coin as its value plummeted, or because they sold shares at a loss—totaled about $2 billion.
Meanwhile, trading has generated about $100 million in trading fees owed to the entities behind the coin, including the Trump Organization, according to analyses from Merkle Science and Chainalysis. However, the majority of it hasn’t been cashed in. CIC Digital, an affiliate of the Trump Organization, and Fight Fight Fight LLC, which is co-owned by CIC, own about 80% of the coin. Though Trump is the owner of the private holding company behind his family’s real estate, entertainment—and now crypto—investments, he handed over the conglomerate’s reins to his children ahead of his second presidential term. Trump previously resisted creating a blind trust or divesting from his businesses.
Launched on Jan. 17, days before Trump’s inauguration, $TRUMP initially skyrocketed in value, peaking on Jan. 19 at nearly $75 per share with a market capitalization of more than $14.75 billion before crashing days later. Today, the memecoin hovers above $16 a share with a market cap of $3.72 billion, about a quarter of its value at its apex.
Though the Trump meme website offers a disclaimer that crypto users should buy shares of the president’s memecoin as a means of support, rather than a legitimate investing strategy, it hasn’t stopped traders from trying to win big, and some have. On the first day of $TRUMP’s trading, one user bought nearly 6 million tokens at a share price of just 18 cents. Two days later, the mystery user sold their shares and racked up a profit of $109 million, according to the Times’ analysis.
A perfect ethical storm
The Trump family’s massive stake in a meme token known for its volatile status has raised concerns $TRUMP is both unethical and almost certain to baffle less sophisticated retail investors, according to some finance experts.
“In terms of investors, of course there’s a huge red flag,” Leonard Kostovetsky, associate professor of finance at Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business, told Fortune last month. “All of these memecoins don’t really have any value beyond just what other people are willing to pay for them. They’re pure bubbles.”
Should the Trump Organization sell its stake in the coin, it would still stand to make billions from the transaction but douse the value of the token in cold water by extension. Beyond concerns of a rug pull and more losses for investors, the Trump family’s ownership of the token has others sounding alarms about conflicts of interest and how the currency could be manipulated in business and diplomacy.
Last week, consumer advocacy group Public Citizen launched a complaint with the Department of Justice and U.S. Office of Government Ethics calling for an investigation into whether Trump illegally solicited gifts in the form of his memecoin. The organization claims Trump’s X post promoting $TRUMP violated regulations prohibiting a president from effectively asking for gifts from the public.
Timothy Massad, a former Commodity Futures Trading Commission commissioner and Harvard senior fellow, argued that countries and companies could try to “curry favor” with the Trump administration by purchasing shares of his memecoin.
“This was plainly a bad thing, a wrong thing,” he said in a CNBC interview in January. “You don't have to be a crypto expert, I think, to see that the Trump Organization took advantage of the impending inauguration to make money. And they did so in a way that wasn't just a conflict then, but it can create conflicts in the future.”
Donald Trump Jr., executive vice president of the Trump Organization, did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
