TRUMP Creators Bank $320M Despite Token's Massive 87% Crash

The once-hyped TRUMP token has plummeted from its initial $77.26 high to just $10.80, yet its creators have walked away with hundreds of millions while everyday investors took the hit.

TRUMP Creator Wallets Rake in $320M as Regular Investors Left Holding the Bag

The numbers don't lie – Chainalysis data shared with CNBC shows the masterminds behind the TRUMP token have pocketed a cool $320 million in trading fees, even as the token's value nosedived by 86% since launch. The real kicker? Around 760,000 wallets – mostly belonging to average retail investors – are underwater on their TRUMP investments.

Digging deeper into the data reveals an eye-opening disparity: just 58 wallets managed to cash out profits exceeding $10 million each. About 5% of those juicy fees ended up with Meteora, the decentralized exchange that hosted the token's debut.

From "Thin Air" to Billions: Trump Family's $2.9B Windfall in XAU-Style Crypto Assets

Talk about a dramatic pivot. In 2019, President Donald Trump dismissed cryptocurrency as being worth nothing more than "thin air." Fast forward to today, and according to the State Democracy Defenders Fund, the Trump family has boosted their net worth by a staggering $2.9 billion through crypto plays, with digital assets now making up roughly 40% of their entire fortune.

This stunning about-face hasn't happened in isolation. Trump's growing embrace of everything from memecoins to DeFi, NFTs, and stablecoins has helped fuel the ongoing bull market that kicked off after his November election victory.

Beyond TRUMP: The MELANIA Token and a Growing Crypto Empire

The TRUMP token isn't the only Trump-branded crypto making headlines. The MELANIA token – yes, named after the First Lady – has performed even worse, crashing over 97% in just four months to a measly 33 cents.

The Financial Times dug into the MELANIA token launch and discovered something fishy – a group of insiders apparently "sniped" the token (grabbed it early) before it was even promoted on social media. This insider crew reportedly pocketed $100 million by swapping MELANIA tokens for USDC after the price doubled.

One insider who's come clean is Hayden Davis from Kelsier Ventures. In a February interview, he admitted: "This is going to put me in a lot of danger. Which is fine, I'll answer. I was a part of it [MELANIA]. I think the team did want to snipe it because of how big the snipe was on TRUMP. We definitely weren't the big sniper, that was what we were trying to avoid. We didn't take any liquidity out, zero."

The Expanding TRUMP Dynasty: From DeFi to NFTs and Exclusive Dinners

Trump's crypto ambitions stretch far beyond just memecoins. His family stands behind World Liberty Financial, a DeFi platform that raised a whopping $590 million across two pre-sale rounds earlier this year. Market volatility has taken its toll, though – Arkham Intelligence data suggests World Liberty Financial's crypto holdings have shrunk to around $103 million.

Back in 2022, Trump jumped on the NFT bandwagon, dropping a series of digital cartoons showing himself as various superheroes. These digital collectibles weren't just for show – they netted him roughly $8 million, according to financial disclosures.

More recently, Trump hosted an exclusive dinner for 25 top TRUMP token holders at his Virginia golf club. A Bloomberg investigation revealed something potentially troubling: 19 of these 25 guests were either foreign entities or used offshore exchanges banned in the US.

Another similar dinner is on the calendar for May, set to host the top 220 TRUMP holders. This hasn't gone unnoticed in Washington – Senators Adam Schiff and Elizabeth Warren have called for Trump's impeachment and asked the Office of Government Ethics to investigate whether these invitations violate federal ethics rules.

TRUMP and the Wild West of Memecoins: Risk, Reward, and Rugs

Trump's memecoin ventures come amid serious red flags in the broader memecoin space. Just last Thursday, Solidus Labs dropped a bombshell claim that an astonishing 98% of memecoins launched on the pump.fun platform were either rug pulls or pump-and-dump schemes (though the platform has pushed back against these findings).

For the uninitiated, memecoins are crypto tokens with zero inherent value, usually based on internet memes or cartoon characters. Think dogecoin (DOGE), shiba inu (SHIB), and pepe (PEPE). The memecoin craze hit fever pitch back in January when Trump promoted his TRUMP token on social media, with MELANIA following shortly after.

The political fallout has been swift – a bipartisan stablecoin bill recently tanked during a key vote after Democrats raised concerns about just how much the president is profiting from the crypto sector.

As Trump continues building his crypto empire, one thing is crystal clear: the stark contrast between insider profits and retail losses highlights just how volatile and potentially predatory the memecoin market really is.