Trump Crypto Fans Rocked by $3.8B Loss as Congress Accuses POTUS of Running 'Meme Coin Ponzi Scheme'

Trump's crypto bet has left nearly 1 million investors nursing a combined $3.8 billion (£2.85 billion) loss, even as Donald Trump personally took in $636 million (£476.19 million) from the meme coin that became one of his most lucrative digital ventures.

The figures, drawn from blockchain analytics firm Nansen and reported in the wake of Trump's latest financial disclosure, have renewed criticism in Washington over whether the president's crypto empire has crossed a line.

The news came after Trump's financial filing showed $2.2 billion (£1.65 billion) in new money from his businesses in 2025, and after the White House kept the political world guessing about how far his family's digital holdings might reach.

Trump's $TRUMP token launched in January 2025, just before his second inauguration, and was promoted directly to supporters as part of a wider Trump-branded crypto push that also includes World Liberty Financial, the family-backed venture behind the $WLFI token.

Trump Crypto Fans Rocked By The Collapse

The numbers are grim for small investors. Nansen found that 988,905 wallets that bought the $TRUMP memecoin were sitting on losses worth about $3.81 billion (£2.85 billion) by the end of June, with the token trading around $1.76 (£1.32) as of Friday, down roughly 97 percent from its peak of $75.35 (£56.42). That kind of plunge is not a correction, it is a wipeout.

For many buyers, the appeal was obvious at the time and now looks painfully naive. Trump posted on 17 January 2025, 'My NEW Official Trump Meme is HERE! It's time to celebrate everything we stand for, WINNING! Join my very special Trump Community. GET YOUR $TRUMP NOW,' and the coin took off on the back of hype that was always going to be hard to sustain.

One investor, Nicholas Pinto, told the Times he viewed the token as 'almost a legal scam' after losing half of his $500,000 (£374,000) stake.

That blunt assessment is difficult to dismiss entirely. Trump's profit did not depend on the price going up, only on the machine turning. According to the reporting, he made $636 million (£476.19 million) from the coin whether it was being bought or sold, a setup that left ordinary traders exposed to the downside while the president's side kept collecting.

Trump Crypto Fans And The Washington Backlash

The political criticism has sharpened as the financial picture has come into focus. In a June hearing, Representative Al Green, the Texas Democrat who sits on the House Financial Services Committee, accused Trump of running a 'memecoin Ponzi scheme.'

Green said, 'We have legalised a Ponzi scheme known as a memecoin... and the president of the United States of America is engaged in this activity, he has made millions of dollars with his ponzi scheme, his memecoin.'

Green's warning went further than just the coin itself. 'The tone and tenor of much of what is happening in cryptocurrency deals is set by the person at the top of this country. The president himself is setting the tone and tenor,' he said.

This is the sort of line that sticks because it reaches beyond one token and into the larger question of what happens when presidential power and private speculation sit too close together.

Trump's defenders could point to the fact that he was once openly hostile to cryptocurrencies. In 2019, he wrote, 'I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air.'

He added that 'Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity...' The reversal is striking, and yes, a little wild.

From Sceptic To Crypto Salesman

The president's pivot has been financially stunning. Beyond $TRUMP, he and his sons Donald Jr. and Eric launched World Liberty Financial during the 2024 campaign, a venture that sells $WLFI and has also seen its value fall from its peak.

It was reported that the Trump family has made around $500 million from World Liberty Financial since launch, underscoring just how central crypto has become to the family business.

This broader picture matters because the $TRUMP losses are not an isolated embarrassment. They sit inside a larger Trump crypto ecosystem that has kept generating money for the family even as many of the products themselves lose altitude.

The White House and World Liberty Financial did not immediately respond to requests for comment, leaving the political and financial questions hanging where they are most awkward.

The debate now is not just about whether investors got burned. It is about whether the presidency itself has become part of the sales pitch, and whether anyone in power is prepared to say that out loud.