Trump's crypto projects led to $4.7 billion loss for investors

Donald Trump and his family’s crypto projects have cost investors at least $4.7 billion since 2022. That is according to the American consumer organisation Public Citizen in a report dated 27 August. The losses are largely unrealised. The five projects examined are NFT trading cards, the governance token WLFI, memecoin TRUMP, stablecoin USD1 and the crypto strategy of Trump Media. Trump himself invested no personal money and reported income of at least $1.4 billion from these activities for 2025.

In short:

• Memecoin TRUMP is responsible for the largest share of the losses: around $3.2 billion, with 65% of buyers still sitting at a loss.
• WLFI holders suffered an estimated loss of at least $1 billion, and Trump Media’s Bitcoin strategy is sitting on an unrealised loss of around $450 million.
• Public Citizen is calling on Congress to mandate legislation that would bar the president and his family from launching, holding or promoting crypto.

Memecoin TRUMP dominated the losses

The TRUMP memecoin was launched on 17 January 2025, three days before the presidential inauguration. Immediately after the launch, one wallet bought the token for around $0.18 each, after which the price rose to a record level of $73.43 within two days. The coin is currently trading at around $2.22.

According to data from blockchain analytics firm Nansen, of the approximately 1.6 million Solana wallets that bought TRUMP, about 1 million are at a loss. The total unrealised loss for that group amounts to $3.2 billion. The gains are highly concentrated: the top 1% of wallets pocketed around $2.7 billion, accounting for 80% of all recorded profits. The median buyer lost $3.06, but nearly 350,000 wallets lost more than $100.

Trump reportedly received $635 million in licensing fees from the TRUMP coin in 2025. His token holdings have an estimated market value of around $271 million. Since he invested nothing, most of that income amounts to direct profit.

WLFI and Trump Media deeply in the red

The governance token WLFI reached a record price of $0.3313 shortly after its launch in September 2024, but has since fallen to around $57. According to CoinPost, Public Citizen estimates total losses on this token at at least $1 billion. A large portion of that is down to the Nasdaq-listed company AI Financial, which bought around $1.46 billion worth of WLFI tokens in August 2025. That position was worth only $421 million at the end of June 2026, a paper loss of more than $1 billion.

Trump Media and Technology Group announced in May 2025 that it would start investing in crypto. The company bought 9,477 Bitcoin for a total of around $1,006 billion. At the end of June 2026, that position was still worth $557 million, resulting in an unrealised loss of around $450 million. Bitcoin currently stands at $79K.

NFT cards and USD1 play a smaller role

The NFT trading cards linked to Trump fell in value from $12.3 million at issuance to around $3 million now, a loss of nearly $9.3 million. The stablecoin USD1 managed to maintain its peg to the dollar and therefore caused hardly any direct losses for holders.

The White House maintains that neither the president nor his family has ever been involved in a conflict of interest. Public Citizen is urging Congress to include ethical rules in the Clarity Act, which is currently being discussed, prohibiting the president, his family and other public officials from launching, holding or recommending crypto.