Cryptocurrency projects using U.S. President Donald Trump’s name have now become an investor “meat grinder.” According to an investigative report by the U.S. nonprofit watchdog Public Citizen, investors in Trump-related crypto projects are currently facing losses of at least $4.7 billion, while Trump himself, through his activities in the crypto space, easily took in more than $1.4 billion in 2025.
The Public Citizen report states that the vast majority of the $4.7 billion is made up of “unrealized losses” (i.e., paper losses—assets have plunged in value but have not yet been sold to realize the loss). However, it also includes “realized losses” (actual losses) tracked via on-chain transaction data.
Among all of Trump’s cryptocurrency projects, the most severe losses are from the meme coin $TRUMP that Trump issued 3 days before his inauguration in January 2025.
Data shows that there are as many as 1.6 million retail wallets that bought $TRUMP on decentralized exchanges (DEXs). Of these, about 1 million wallets were left trapped, with total paper losses nearing $3.2 billion; losses realized by selling the tokens are about $400 million.
According to CoinGecko market data, $TRUMP hit an all-time high of $73.43 in January 2025, but as of the time of writing it has already plunged to $2.41, a drop of 96.7% .
Public Citizen said that the token-issuing feast for $TRUMP almost only made money for the earliest participants. Wallets that entered and bought in the two days before trading opened captured nearly 90% of the total profits earned by retail investors, and the biggest winner is undoubtedly Trump himself.
The report bluntly states: “Trump’s tokens are directly allocated to his companies, not bought with his own money—and he can continue to extract royalties through brand licensing. These projects require no personal funding from Trump, meaning that almost all of the income he records is net profit.”
WLFI partner stock price crashes by 90% — Bitcoin reserves also suffer
Besides meme coins, the DeFi project “World Liberty Financial ($WLFI)” led by the Trump family has also caused investors at least $1 billion in losses. This includes a massive paper loss at the Nasdaq-listed AI Financial Corp. The company spent $1.46 billion to buy 7.28 billion $WLFI tokens in August 2025, and its current paper loss is about $1.04 billion. Since partnering with World Liberty Financial, the company’s share price has fallen from $7.04 to $0.642, a plunge of 91%.
In addition, Trump Media Group’s “Bitcoin Treasury” also fell victim to the trap. The report notes that as of June 30, the company held 9,477 bitcoins with a purchase cost of about $1.006 billion, but it has now shrunk to about $557 million, with a paper loss of $450 million.
Report adds: The buyers of the three “digital trading cards (Trump Digital Trading Cards, i.e., NFT digital collectibles)” issued by Trump earlier also suffered losses of at least $93 million; only the stablecoin USD1, which has consistently maintained a $1 peg, did not cause losses to holders.
Despite devastating losses for the vast number of investors, according to the personal financial disclosure information most recently filed by Trump, in 2025 alone he earned at least $1.4 billion in cash and royalty-income from various types of cryptocurrency businesses.
This article is reproduced with authorization from: (Block City)
Original title: (Trump issues tokens “slicing the greens” and enjoys a $1.4 billion haul! Investigation report: investors bleed $4.7 billion)
Original author: Block Sister Mel
“Investigation report: Trump issues tokens ‘slicing the greens’ for a $1.4B profit, but investors bleed $4.7B” was first published on “Crypto City.”