Trump Family-Linked Firms Make $320M Profit on Memecoin Despite 87% Day 1 Drop
Firms Associated with Trump Family Make $320 Million in Profits from Memecoin Despite 87% Drop Since Day 1
Chainalysis data suggests that the creators of the TRUMP token made $320 million in fees, while many retail investors suffered losses.
Oliver Knight | Edited by Nikhilesh De, Sheldon Reback Updated May 10, 2025, 12:07 PM Published May 9, 2025, 4:42 AM
Key points:
- Chainalysis data shows that the creators of the TRUMP token made $320 million in fees, while most retail investors suffered losses.
- According to the State Democracy Defenders Foundation, the family's net worth has increased by $2.9 billion thanks to cryptocurrency, with crypto assets accounting for 40% of that amount.
- Democrats who scrutinized a private cryptocurrency dinner hosted by Trump at his Virginia golf club have called for his impeachment.
CORRECTION (May 9, 11:58 UTC): Headline and first paragraph corrected to clarify that firms linked to the Trump family have made millions from the TRUMP token. Added details to paragraph 11 about the token creators and their trading revenue.
US President Donald Trump has come a long way since he said in 2019 that cryptocurrency's value was “baseless.” He has now become one of the sector's leading proponents, actively participating in memecoins, DeFi, NFTs, and even stablecoins.
A new report from the State Democracy Defenders Foundation found that the Trump family has increased its net worth by $2.9 billion thanks to cryptocurrency, with 40% of that wealth now held in crypto assets.
His deepening ties to the industry have reverberated across the political spectrum, including the failure of a bipartisan stablecoin bill on a key vote Thursday as Democrats raised concerns about how he was exploiting the sector.
Trump’s support helped spark a long bull market following his election victory in November, dominated by two trends: memecoins and institutional adoption of bitcoin via ETFs. While the latter mostly affects institutional investors and providers, it is the memecoin business that exposes retail investors to risk and is potentially ripe for exploitation.
Solidus Labs reported Thursday that 98% of memecoins created on token-creator platform pump.fun were scams or pump-and-dump schemes. The platform has denied the report's claims.
Another analysis by Chainalysis, cited by CNBC, found that most TRUMP token holders suffered losses.
A memecoin is a category of cryptocurrency token with no intrinsic value, often based, as the name suggests, on a meme or cartoon character. Examples include dogecoin (DOGE), shiba inu (SHIB), and pepe (PEPE). The hype peaked in January when Trump heavily promoted his TRUMP token on social media, followed by MELANIA, named after his wife.
TRUMP, which peaked at $77.26 on launch day, is now trading at $10.80, down 86%. MELANIA has fallen even further, losing more than 97% of its value in four months and is currently trading at 33 cents.
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