How Trump made more than $1 billion on crypto when most of his coin’s investors lost money
By David Goldman, CNN
(CNN) — President Donald Trump launched his $TRUMP memecoin in the days leading up to his second inauguration, ushering in a pro-crypto administration – and a lucrative family business.
The venture that netted Trump hundreds of millions of dollars last year, part of overall crypto gains that topped $1 billion.
Most $TRUMP memecoin investors weren’t so lucky.
$TRUMP was an instant success, catapulting to a $15 billion market valuation, according to CoinMarketCap. It’s now worth just $400 million – a 97% implosion.
But the memecoin’s price is meaningless to Trump. Even as his memecoin investors lost money, Trump reaped the rewards.
Fees
Trump attributed his enormous 2025 wealth increase to the stock market.
“You know why I’m profiting, because the stock market’s going up,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews before a flight to North Dakota. “Everybody’s profiting.”
He’s not wrong that the market is boosting Americans’ portfolios: Folks who were invested in the S&P 500 throughout 2025 earned a handsome 17.9% return on their investment.
But that’s not what’s going on here. Crypto, not stocks, accounted for the bulk of Trump’s net worth gain last year. Of that , very little was from direct investments in cryptocurrencies.
Instead, Trump got most of his crypto money in 2025 from transaction and licensing fees and other revenue associated with the coins his company sold to traders. Trump’s companies are the majority owners of the tokens, with Trump Organization affiliates CIC Digital and Fight Fight Fight LLC controlling 80% of the coin’s supply.
In a CNBC interview, Trump defended his crypto gains by saying he’s followed the law by authorizing his adult children to oversee his personal finances while in office.
“I’m a really good business person, I’ve made money, I made a tremendous amount of money, more than I would have ever thought I would have made,” Trump told CNBC’s Joe Kernen, “And I let people invest it, I don’t even speak to — I don’t even know who they are, but it’s given to big firms… my son Eric handles it, I don’t talk to him about things such as this. I think I’d be allowed to, I’m not sure even what the status is, but I don’t.”
Pressed on whether he was aware of his massive crypto holdings, Trump told CNBC, “No, but that was just something I could know about it, right? I mean, there’s nothing illegal. There’s nothing wrong with it.”
Trump stands to gain from his memecoin’s market value. But irrespective of whether $TRUMP rose or fell, he earned transaction fees each time $TRUMP was bought or sold.
Between his memecoin and other cryptocurrency tokens tied to World Liberty Financial LLC — a firm managed in part by his sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. – Trump netted more than $526 million from token sales.
Memecoins, explained
Memecoins have a tendency to surge – then tumble – in price. That’s because memecoins, unlike typical cryptocurrencies, have no intrinsic value. They’re extraordinarily risky and speculative assets that trade on an exchange but lend themselves to scams called “rug-pulls.”
In a rug-pull, memecoin creators launch a coin, wait for the price to surge, and then cash out their earnings.
$TRUMP and the associated $MELANIA, advertised themselves as rug-pull-proof, ensuring that the president and first lady couldn’t unlock any of their gains all at once – they had to stagger sales over the course of three years.
But just because a memecoin isn’t a scam doesn’t make it a smart investment. So why would people buy $TRUMP?
Investors in $TRUMP may have been attractedbecause they wanted to support the president. They may have done it for the novelty or because they believed it would be lucrative .
But some big-pocketed investors poured money into the memecoin to gain access to Trump.
Last May, Trump hosted a black-tie dinner as a special reward for the top 220 holders of $TRUMP. Attendees contributed millions of dollars in investments in his crypto token. The 25 biggest investors gained access to a small VIP reception with the president.
So the $TRUMP memecoin may have been a lousy investment over the past year. But some of its investors still gained something. Trump certainly did.
CNN’s DJ Judd contributed reporting.
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