The Donald Trump crypto meme token, $TRUMP, has netted investors $350 million since its launch, The Financial Times reports. While it is unclear what portion of this windfall has personally profited the president, it is likely to fuel concerns over conflicts of interest.
The White House and the memcoin’s website, Gettrumpmemes.com, did not respond to requests for comment, although the website states that “CIC Digital LLC, an affiliate of The Trump Organization” and Fight Fight Fight LLC, a Delaware company, own 80% of the tokens.
While President Trump has officially endorsed the coin, Fight Fight Fight is running the project and “is not distributed or sold by Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization or any of their respective affiliates or principals,” according to the website.
In effect, the sale of the tokens permits Trump supporters to anonymously donate to the president, according to investors.
The memecoin exploits retail investors, ethics experts charge. “GET YOUR $TRUMP NOW,” President Trump posted on X in January.
Two days later, his wife, Melania Trump launched her own token, $MELANIA.
“The president of the United States should not be essentially doing things to profit from his office while in office,” says Tim Massad, former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and adjunct law professor at Georgetown Law School. “It’s a terrible example.”
At launch, $TRUMP minted a billion tokens, releasing 200 million as a first batch, with the remaining 800 million to be put on the market in the next three years.
Buyers of the Trump tokens on the open market receive USDC, a stablecoin that is widely used on cryptocurrency markets as a substitute for the U.S. dollar.
Upon release, $TRUMP soared to a high of $75 per token. It has since fallen about 82% to $13. According to FT analysis, the 831 million tokens held in Trump-linked wallets have a notional value of $10.8 billion.
When Melania’s token was launched, it sent the price of Trump’s memecoin plunging. As a result, the organizers spent $1 million propping up the token by buying it at $33.23 each.
“It’s something that is pretty [common] in crypto as a whole: using their own treasury to defend the charts,” says Nicolas Vaiman, chief executive officer of Bubblemaps, a cryptocurrency analytics company.
Since the Trump tokens hit the market, more than 700 copycats have created presidential-linked tokens, hoping to cash in on the $TRUMP craze.