Trump Cashes In from Memecoin, But Nearly a Million Investors Lose $3.8 Billion
Almost a million people who bought Donald Trump's memecoin have lost money. This is confirmed by a report from blockchain analysis company Nansen, which states that the total losses for small investors amount to $3.81 billion as of June 30.
This information comes shortly after the annual financial statement signed by Trump himself, which shows a personal gain of $635 million from the same venture, part of an overall haul of at least $2.2 billion generated in 2025 from all his business activities.
The mechanism worked unidirectionally: Trump profited both when the token's price rose and when it plummeted, collecting a percentage on every trade made by users that he himself encouraged to buy and sell through Truth Social.
Trump: From Skeptic to Cryptocurrency Promoter
Once critical of the sector, Trump changed his stance in 2024 during the election campaign, co-founding with his sons the company World Liberty Financial, which launched the $WLFI token, also significantly declining. Three days before the swearing-in, the president then introduced a second project, the memecoin $TRUMP, a coin with no real practical utility designed more as a digital gadget than as a financial instrument.
Cryptocurrency transactions remain traceable on the public blockchain ledger, and it is by cross-referencing this data that Nansen identified 988,905 wallets in loss, representing about two-thirds of those who bought the token. The price of $TRUMP, which peaked at $75.35, was trading at $1.76 on Friday, a 97% drop.
Among the affected is Nicholas Pinto, a regular cryptocurrency trader and Trump voter in 2024, who reports having invested about $500,000 in the token, losing about half of it. "He is exploiting the power of the presidency to launch coins, appearing trustworthy in the eyes of the public," he stated. "It's almost a legalized scam."
Spokesperson Anna Kelly rejected all accusations, arguing that "all of President Trump's actions and those of his administration are made in the best interest of the American people." Since arriving in the White House, Trump has also reduced regulatory oversight of the crypto sector, including rules on memecoins: the Securities and Exchange Commission announced as early as February 2025 that it would no longer examine such operations.
Not everyone has lost: about 500,000 wallets have registered profits totaling $4 billion, explains Nansen. These are mainly experienced traders with automated programs capable of taking advantage of the initial surge in price (from under $1 to over $70) before the less experienced mass of investors entered late into the operation.
From the World Liberty company, Trump has collected $799 million in just 2025, including hundreds of millions paid by the United Arab Emirates, which at the beginning of the same year acquired almost half of the company. A company linked to Trump also retained 75% of the revenue from the sale of the $WLFI token, net of expenses, ensuring a profit regardless of the currency's performance.
Initially sold for $0.015 or $0.05, the token became tradable on exchange platforms only in September. Of the 26,663 wallets monitored by Nansen, 85% are in loss, totaling $83 million against $23 million in profits. Today $WLFI is priced at $0.057, down 82% from September.
Legal scholar Stephen Gillers, a professor at New York University, does not rule out future class action lawsuits from damaged investors, despite the memecoin's website warning that the token should not be considered an investment tool. "Trump, when he was a real estate entrepreneur, boasted of playing with people's fantasies," observes Gillers. "Here he seems to have pushed his supporters to invest in the hope of getting rich, while he himself profited."