KA-CHING

Trump’s Memecoin Grift Hit With Calls for ‘Scam’ Probe

Two Democratic senators want answers about the president’s doomed crypto venture.

President Donald Trump’s memecoin venture could soon come under scrutiny.

Two Democratic senators have urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to probe the president’s crypto venture after it blew up and crashed just as quickly, leading to billions of dollars in losses for nearly a million investors.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut urged SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, a pro-crypto Trump appointee, to investigate the president’s memecoin “to detect any illegal fraud or unjust enrichment that the coin may have facilitated.”

“We are concerned that President Trump’s memecoin scheme may constitute an illegal scam,” they wrote on Monday in a letter first obtained by CNN. “The SEC must be willing to enforce the law even when potential wrongdoers include those with powerful political connections.”

The president’s eponymous memecoin, $TRUMP, surged to a staggering $27 billion market cap—about $75 apiece—when it was launched just days before Trump’s second inauguration. A year later, it plummeted 94 percent to just $4.86 per coin. As of Tuesday, it was valued at only $1.46.

“The SEC must investigate whether a fraudulent scheme may be underway, and prevent further extraction of enormous value from the hundreds of thousands of investors who put their faith in Trump’s coin,” Warren and Blumenthal wrote.

The White House referred the Daily Beast to the Trump Organization, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Not even the president’s own supporters could hide their disappointment with the flailing coin. Nick Pinto, a Trump voter who invested about half a million in the $TRUMP coin, has now lost about half of his investment.

“He is leveraging the power of being president to launch currencies, when he seems trustworthy in the public’s eye,” he told The New York Times. “It is kind of incredible. It is almost a legal scam.”

In an attempt to sweeten the deal for $TRUMP investors, the president hosted glitzy galas for the holders of his memecoin in April this year and in May 2025.

But Pinto said the event failed to meet his expectations.

“The food sucked,” he said. “Wasn’t given any drinks other than water or Trump’s wine. I don’t drink, so I had water. My glass was only filled once.”

Pinto also said Trump “didn’t talk to any of the 220 guests—maybe the top 25.”

The president, in stark contrast, didn’t suffer any of the losses his memecoin investors did. In fact, Trump’s first year back in the White House was his most lucrative one yet: he took in $2.4 billion in 2025, the bulk of which came from cryptocurrency.

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White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly previously said in a statement that, “as President Trump said, he has a lot of assets because he was a massively successful businessman prior to becoming President, which was why he was elected to office in the first place.”

“All of the President’s assets are held in fully discretionary accounts managed by independent third-party financial institutions. There are no conflicts of interest,” she added.

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