Trump's official meme coin ($TRUMP) is now priced at around $15, having dropped 80% from its peak of $77! According to The New York Times, the Trump family and partners earned nearly $100 million from transaction fees, but most of the money has not yet been cashed out.
Looking back in history, Trump launched this token just 3 days before his inauguration, as if making money was one of his top priorities for being president.
Supporters of 'Make America Great Again' are quite welcoming of this token, after all, this is another way for Trump to monetize the MAGA brand, just like he sells hats, NFTs, DeFi platforms, sneakers, and Bibles. However, the meme coin market (with a total market cap of about $100 billion) is actually very complex; many investors and insiders pump up the price before exiting, but later entrants end up getting completely reaped!
Reports suggest that due to Trump's endorsement of his 'official' token $TRUMP , many first-time cryptocurrency buyers were attracted, and the Trump family is under scrutiny for such activities. Critics argue that Trump could change his regulatory stance on cryptocurrencies in a suitable way, which would also conflict with the investment interests of his supporters!
The ones who are really hurt are Trump's supporters. For example, Shawn M. Whitson, a small business owner from North Carolina, excitedly said on inauguration day, 'We took back our country!' Weeks later, he found out that his $TRUMP investment had become a 'joke,' resulting in heavy losses.
Some big names in the cryptocurrency circle, such as Anthony Scaramucci and Stephen Findeisen from SkyBridge, immediately accused Trump of engaging in a stock price manipulation scam: big players buy in first, then hype it up, and finally cash out, leaving small investors to go bankrupt.
Although there is no solid evidence that Trump or his team manipulated the price, The New York Times cited data from Nansen, Chainalysis, and researcher Molly White, stating that three hours before Trump launched the token, an account purchased $1.096 billion worth of $TRUMP. This anonymous account later sold these tokens, making a profit of $50 million. Subsequent transactions increased their profit to $109 million. Another trader started buying two minutes after the token was launched and ultimately made $2.7 million.
700,000 wallets made money from the Trump token, but the real winners are 31 early traders who made $669 million in just a few days. However, 813,000 wallets were not so lucky, as they either lost money cashing out or continued holding the tokens, resulting in total losses of $2 billion.
However, the Trump family will not stop because of the controversy surrounding this meme coin. They recently launched an investment platform called TruthFi, touted as an alternative investment platform to the 'Awakening Fund'!
What do you think? Do you believe the $TRUMP token price drop was due to insider manipulation or uncontrollable factors? Leave a comment in the discussion area!
