Nearly 1 million investors in President Donald Trump’s memecoin have lost a massive $3.8 billion on their investments.
But Trump, 80, made $636 million from the coin, as he profited whether the currency was being bought or sold, a report from cryptocurrency analytics firm Nansen found.
The analysis was sparked by Trump’s massive financial disclosure that showed the president had raked in $2.2 billion in new money from all his businesses in 2025, The New York Times reported.
Trump’s memecoin is just one of his crypto products. Together with his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, Trump launched a crypto start-up called World Liberty Financial while campaigning for president in 2024. It sells a currency called $WLFI, which has also declined from its peak.
It’s a far cry from Trump’s previously held anti-crypto position. In 2019 he tweeted:
“I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity...”
The president has since changed his tune.
Although late to embrace crypto, Trump has profited immensely from it over the past two years. $TRUMP, which he announced in January 2025, just prior to his second inauguration, rose sharply in value to a peak price of $75.35.
“My NEW Official Trump Meme is HERE! It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING! Join my very special Trump Community. GET YOUR $TRUMP NOW,” he posted on Jan. 17, 2025.
As of Friday, that memecoin had plunged 97 percent in value, trading at $1.76.
The memecoin is promoted with a heavily altered picture of the president, looking much younger and trimmer than he actually is.
One investor in $TRUMP who lost out told the Times he thought the memecoin was essentially a “legal scam.”
“He is leveraging the power of being president to launch currencies, when he seems trustworthy in the public’s eye,” Nicholas Pinto said. “It is kind of incredible. It is almost a legal scam.”
Pinto lost half of the $500,000 he invested in $TRUMP.
Trump’s crypto ventures come as he instructs the federal government to wind back oversight of the market and ease up on regulation, like tax reporting.
That has prompted scrutiny from some in congress.
In a congressional hearing in June, Al Green, the Democratic representative for Texas’s ninth district who sits on the House Financial Services Committee, accused the president of running a memecoin Ponzi scheme.
“We have legalized a Ponzi scheme known as a memecoin... and the president of the United States of America is engaged in this activity, he has made millions of dollars with his ponzi scheme, his memecoin,” he said.
“The tone and tenor of much of what is happening in cryptocurrency deals is set by the person at the top of this country. The president himself is setting the tone and tenor.”
The White House and World Liberty Financial did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
