About 764,000 wallets that purchased President Donald Trump's meme coin have incurred losses on their investment, according to new data shared by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis with CNBC.
Most of the losing wallets hold small amounts of this coin, according to the company's chain analysis. Cryptocurrency wallets are accounts that store the keys necessary to access and use your cryptocurrency assets.
Chainalysis reported that while there are about 2 million wallets that have purchased this token, 58 wallets have earned more than $10 million each, totaling about $1.1 billion in profit.
$TRUMP token, which saw strong growth following its association with the start of Trump's second presidential term, has experienced significant price volatility and uneven returns for investors. Fight Fight Fight LLC. and CIC Digital LLC. control a large portion of the token's supply.
Interest in this coin has increased by more than 50% after the project's website promised that owners of the 220 largest wallets would get to participate in a "select" dinner with the president.
The $TRUMP event, scheduled for May 22 at Trump National Golf Club in Washington, D.C., includes a reception for the 25 wallets with the largest coin balances, along with a tour of the White House.
The price surge related to the dinner has pushed the market capitalization of the token to $2.7 billion at its peak, although it has since decreased to around $2.17 billion.
Since that price surge, around 54,000 wallets have purchased this coin. In total, 100,000 new wallets have bought $TRUMP since April 15, according to Chainalysis, extending the growth after the announcement despite the broader cryptocurrency market continuing to be volatile.
This Trump-branded meme token has attracted scrutiny from regulators and ethics watchdogs.
Lawmakers are currently investigating whether the meme coin $TRUMP — and a related cryptocurrency project named World Liberty Financial, in which 75% of the revenue is passed to Trump's family — creates a direct conflict of interest for the president.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has been investigating the ownership structure and revenue model of this token, while Democratic representatives in the House have walked out of a hearing on cryptocurrency in protest.
The central issue of the controversy is the dinner competition for top token holders, promotional posts from the president himself, and the connection with foreign investors, including a state-backed fund from the United Arab Emirates and cryptocurrency mogul Justin Sun.
Launched in January before Trump's second inauguration, the value of this token skyrocketed to $15 billion after a series of promotional posts from the president on Truth Social and X. However, it lost much of its value within just a few days.
Currently, only 20% of the total tokens are in circulation. The remaining 80% — believed to be controlled by the Trump Organization and affiliated entities — are locked under a three-year release schedule. Public disclosures state that insiders have agreed not to sell their allocations for several more months.
Although their tokens are still restricted in release, insiders are still earning significant revenue.
Since January, more than $324 million in transaction fees have been transferred to wallets linked to the founder of this project, according to Chainalysis. The token code automatically transfers a portion of each transaction to these addresses, allowing the founding team to profit from ongoing trading activity.