President Donald Trump launched his $TRUMP memecoin within the days main as much as his second inauguration, ushering in a pro-crypto administration – and a profitable household enterprise.
The enterprise that netted Trump a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars} final 12 months, half of total crypto positive factors that topped $1 billion.
Most $TRUMP memecoin investors weren’t so fortunate.
$TRUMP was an prompt success, catapulting to a $15 billion market valuation, in accordance with CoinMarketCap. It’s now price simply $400 million – a 97% implosion.
But the memecoin’s value is meaningless to Trump. Even as his memecoin investors lost money, Trump reaped the rewards.
Trump attributed his enormous 2025 wealth increase to the inventory market.
“You know why I’m profiting, because the stock market’s going up,” Trump advised reporters at Joint Base Andrews earlier than a flight to North Dakota. “Everybody’s profiting.”
He’s not improper that the market is boosting Americans’ portfolios: Folks who had been invested within the S&P 500 all through 2025 earned a good-looking 17.9% return on their funding.
But that’s not what’s going on right here. Crypto, not shares, accounted for the majority of Trump’s internet price acquire final 12 months. Of that , little or no was from direct investments in cryptocurrencies.
Instead, Trump received most of his crypto money in 2025 from transaction and licensing charges and different income related to the cash his firm offered to merchants. Trump’s corporations are the bulk house owners of the tokens, with Trump Organization associates CIC Digital and Fight Fight Fight LLC controlling 80% of the coin’s provide.
Trump stands to achieve from the coin’s market worth. But irrespective of whether or not $TRUMP rose or fell, he earned transaction charges every time $TRUMP was purchased or offered.
Between his memecoin and different cryptocurrency tokens tied to World Liberty Financial LLC — a agency managed partially by his sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. – Trump netted more than $526 million from token gross sales.
Memecoins tend to surge – then tumble – in value. That’s as a result of memecoins, not like typical cryptocurrencies, have no intrinsic value. They’re terribly dangerous and speculative property that commerce on an alternate however lend themselves to scams known as “rug-pulls.”
In a rug-pull, memecoin creators launch a coin, anticipate the value to surge, after which money out their earnings.
$TRUMP and the related $MELANIA, marketed themselves as rug-pull-proof, guaranteeing that the president and first woman couldn’t unlock any of their positive factors all of sudden – they needed to stagger gross sales over the course of three years.
But simply because a memecoin isn’t a rip-off doesn’t make it a wise funding. So why would individuals purchase $TRUMP?
Investors in $TRUMP might have been attractedbecause they wished to assist the president. They might have executed it for the novelty or as a result of they believed it could be profitable .
But some big-pocketed investors poured money into the memecoin to achieve entry to Trump.
Last May, Trump hosted a black-tie dinner as a particular reward for the highest 220 holders of $TRUMP. Attendees contributed tens of millions of {dollars} in investments in his crypto token. The 25 largest investors gained entry to a small VIP reception with the president.
So the $TRUMP memecoin might have been a awful funding over the previous 12 months. But some of its investors nonetheless gained one thing. Trump actually did.