Early Buyers Took the $4B, 988,905 Wallets Took the 98% Drop 🪙

Nearly 1 million wallets holding the Official Trump ($TRUMP) meme coin are sitting on combined losses of $3.81 billion, according to blockchain analytics firm Nansen. The token trades roughly 98% below its January 2025 record high of $73.43, which it reached within two days of launch on January 17, 2025, three days before President Donald Trump's second inauguration. At its peak, the coin's market value neared $15 billion.

Nansen tracked approximately 1.48 million wallets that purchased $TRUMP. Just under 500,000 of those wallets realized profits totaling about $4 billion, with most of those gains captured by early traders who sold into the first rally. The remaining 988,905 wallets, roughly two out of every three buyers tracked, are underwater once paper losses are included. Trump family crypto earnings are estimated at $1.4 billion, while the $MELANIA meme coin is down about 99%.

The token's structure directed a share of every trade to creator-linked wallets regardless of price action. Chainalysis traced more than $324 million in such fees to those addresses in the months following launch. Trump's 2025 financial disclosure listed a $636 million windfall from the meme coin, with royalties routed through CIC Digital, the Trump-linked entity behind the token. In a February 2025 statement, the Securities and Exchange Commission said meme coins are not securities, placing the market outside its oversight.

The pattern mirrors other politically linked token launches flagged by analysts, including Argentina's LIBRA token promoted by President Javier Milei in February 2025, which saw its near $4 billion valuation collapse within hours and triggered a fraud probe. Nansen's data shows that roughly two-thirds of $TRUMP buyers ended up absorbing the decline that followed the launch hype, while early entrants exited with the bulk of the gains.