About 1 million retail investors lost money on Trump's meme coin while his family pocketed over $1b

Two out of every three retail investors who bought the official $TRUMP meme coin issued by US President Donald Trump are sitting on losses, while the Trump family has collected more than $1.44 billion in profits from meme coin and virtual asset ventures — reigniting conflict-of-interest concerns.

Citing a report by crypto analytics firm Nansen, The New York Times reported Friday (local time) that as of late June, 988,905 wallets holding $TRUMP were in the red — about 66 percent of all wallets tracked.

Total losses, including unrealized losses, reached $3.81 billion. Fewer than 500,000 wallets were in profit, yet their combined gains totaled $4 billion.

Nansen said the data illustrated the typical profit structure of meme coins, where a small number of early investors reap enormous gains while the majority of retail investors absorb the losses.

$TRUMP traded at $1.76 on Thursday — down roughly 97 percent from its all-time high of $75.35 set earlier this year.

The analysis has drawn attention as it coincides with the annual financial disclosure released by the US Office of Government Ethics.

According to the disclosure, Trump earned $636 million from $TRUMP-related ventures last year. The coin launched on Jan. 17, 2025 — three days before Trump's inauguration — and he promoted it on X and Truth Social as "the only official Trump meme coin."

The New York Times reported that Trump was set up to earn fee revenue from every transaction regardless of whether the coin's price rose or fell, meaning the issuer could secure steady income as long as investors kept trading.

World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a virtual asset project backed by the Trump family, has drawn similar scrutiny. Its native token, $WLFI, currently trades at $0.057 — down about 82 percent since its launch last year.

Yet Trump's financial disclosure showed he earned $799 million from the WLFI project alone last year. WLFI has faced criticism for being designed so that roughly 75 percent of token sale proceeds flow to Trump-affiliated entities, allowing the issuer to profit regardless of token price performance.

Combined, Trump's earnings from $TRUMP and WLFI reached $1.44 billion last year.

The White House said Trump "has helped make America the crypto capital of the world" and that "all actions taken by the administration are in the best interests of the American people."

WLFI, for its part, attributed the token's price decline to "broad weakness across the virtual asset market, including bitcoin."

Industry observers say the case has once again exposed the structural risks of meme coins: issuers lock in revenue through token sales and transaction fees while ordinary investors bear most of the price risk. With a sitting president directly involved in promoting and profiting from the ventures, the conflict-of-interest debate is expected to continue.