Days before he was inaugurated for a second term, President Trump launched a meme coin brandishing the words “fight, fight, fight." But most of those who invested in it might feel like giving up.
Of the 2 million accounts that have purchased the $TRUMP coin, 764,000 have lost money on it, according to data that blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis shared with CNBC. Most invested in smaller amounts of the token, the media outlet reported.
Fifty-eight accounts — known as crypto "wallets" — made more than $10 million apiece, totaling roughly $1.1 billion in profits, per CNBC.
Meme coins, based on internet jokes or fast-moving cultural trends, are a highly volatile form of cryptocurrency. Trump's token gained billions of dollars in value overnight — at least on paper — after he announced it. The value fell after Melania Trump launched her own meme coin a few days later.
On Monday, Trump promoted his coin on social media and a contest associated with it that offers access to him. People who hold the largest balance can attend an “intimate private dinner” with Trump at his golf club outside Washington, D.C., on May 22 and take a tour of the White House, according to the coin's website. The news prompted the coin to surge over 50% and boosted its total market value to $2.7 billion, NBC News reported. The Trump Organization and its affiliates control most of the token supply, according to the website.
Around 54,000 wallets have bought the coin since the promotion began, according to CNBC. Bloomberg reports that more than half of the top holders used foreign exchanges, suggesting they are based outside the U.S.
CNBC reports the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is investigating the token’s ownership structure and revenue model — as well as World Liberty Financial, a crypto business Trump is affiliated with — to determine whether they pose a direct conflict.
Trump, who in 2019 said he was "not a fan" of crypto, downplayed the conflicts on Sunday during an interview with "Meet the Press." “I haven’t even looked,” Trump said when asked if he is profiting from his token. “If I own stock in something, and I do a good job, and the market goes up, I guess I’m profiting," he added.
As president, Trump oversees the federal government's regulation of crypto, which has become friendlier since the Biden administration's crackdown.
Federal agencies charged with investigating crypto firms and enforcing rules have been stripped, and cases against top crypto firms including Coinbase, Ripple and others have been dropped.
Trump issued an executive order and created a task force to boost the industry, appointed a crypto advocate as head of the regulatory agency that oversees crypto and proposed a "strategic crypto reserve" for the government to purchase and hold digital tokens.
Additionally, Trump Media & Technology needs the Trump administration's approval to move forward with its plan to offer bitcoin exchange-traded funds as part of Truth.Fi, its new financial services firm.
Meanwhile a crypto bill Trump wants to sign has hit a roadblock in the Senate. Democrats balked at advancing it after The New York Times investigated World Liberty Financial and its $2 billion deal with a foreign government-backed fund.
The business, launched by Trump and his three sons last year, has begun offering stablecoins that could generate tens of millions of dollars a year in revenue for them and their business partners, The Times reports. One of their partners is Steve Witkoff, Trump's longtime friend and Middle East special envoy.
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