Three days before his inauguration, on January 17, 2025, Trump launched the $TRUMP meme coin. The coin's website, as quoted in an April 2026 Senate letter, says CIC Digital, a Trump Organization affiliate, and Fight Fight Fight LLC “collectively own 80%” of the supply, released on a three-year schedule, and that CIC Digital and Celebration Cards LLC “will receive trading revenue.” The token's value “initially soared to $15 billion” after promotional posts from the president, CNBC reported, and lost most of that within days.
In July 2026 the New York Times, drawing on an analysis by the crypto-analytics firm Nansen, counted 988,905 wallets that had lost money on the coin, roughly two out of every three buyers, for a combined $3.81 billion “including buyers who have held on to their stash and recorded paper losses.” The coin was down 97 percent from its peak. Trump's 2025 financial disclosure, covering the coin's first year, reports $635,068,835 in royalties from a license agreement with “Celebration Coins” under CIC Digital, his meme-coin business; the Times called it “a $636 million payout.” Across five Trump-linked ventures, Forbes estimated, “The Trumps, after cashing out $1.9 billion, are still up $3.1 billion overall,” while their supporters “are down an estimated $7 billion.”
The structure is what makes it a question about the presidency rather than an ordinary failed speculation. Buyers can be anonymous, and money moves through the coin to a business owned by the sitting president's trust; Sen. Chris Murphy: “There is no way to know who is buying the coin.” Murphy called it “the single most corrupt act ever committed by a president” and introduced the MEME Act, which would bar the president, vice president, members of Congress, senior officials and their families from issuing or promoting digital assets. In May 2025 the largest holders were invited to dinner with Trump (see Trump Hosted a Dinner at His Virginia Golf Club for the 220 Biggest Buyers of His Meme Coin). For the disclosure, see Trump's Disclosure Lists About $2 Billion Coming In During His First Year Back, $1.4 Billion of It From Crypto.
Correction (September 25, 2026): this entry previously said Trump made $636 million “in fees” “over the same period” as the losses. The disclosure reports $635,068,835 as royalties, for calendar year 2025; the losses were counted through June 2026. It also said Forbes profiled buyers left “broke” on the coin; the investor Forbes quoted as saying he was broke had lost money on a different Trump venture. The 80 percent and $15 billion figures were not in the entry's cited sources; sources for both have been added.