Trump's memecoins and the family's crypto business: financial suicide for retail investors
Analyzing the dynamics of digital assets associated with Donald Trump's brand, I come to a clear conclusion: investments in these projects are a classic trap for retail investors. The founder of the In The Assembly project, known under the pseudonym NoLimit, called such investments financial "suicide," and I fully share this assessment.
The president's prominent name is used here solely as a magnet to attract capital from a trusting audience. The mechanism is simple and cynical: insiders and early participants lock in profits, while ordinary buyers, often driven by political sympathies, are left with devalued assets. In some cases, losses reach 90-99%.
TRUMP Memecoin: Classic Pump-and-Dump
The token was launched on the Solana blockchain a few days before the inauguration in January 2025. The peak coin value reached $75.35. As of today, the price hovers around $1.7, representing a 97.7% collapse from the all-time high. This is a classic scheme: early buyers and insiders successfully cashed out, while retail investors, including supporters of the MAGA movement, were left with completely devalued assets.
MELANIA Memecoin: Mirror Scenario
The token entered the market immediately after the release of TRUMP and followed the same fate. The all-time high of $13.73 gave way to a current price of around $0.075 — a drop of 99.45%. A popular brand, closely tied to the famous family, was effectively used to extract millions of dollars from the pockets of retail buyers before a massive coin dump.
Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT): A Business Without Profit
The company went public through a merger with a SPAC in March 2024. The stock price, starting above $79, corrected to $7.5 — a decline of over 90%. The organization loses hundreds of millions of dollars annually with minimal revenue. The market valuation was sustained for a long time solely by political hype, which the real business never managed to justify.
American Bitcoin Corp (ABTC): Privileges for the Few
Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. own approximately 20% of the company through a complex deal structure. The organization was listed on Nasdaq and holds thousands of bitcoins on its balance sheet. The 52-week high for the stock was $14.52, with the current price around $0.74, representing a drop of approximately 95%. The structure allowed Trump's sons to successfully monetize their stake through the public market, while retail shareholders once again suffered significant financial losses.
Historical Context: A Pattern, Not a Coincidence
Similar examples can easily be found in the past. The Trump Taj Mahal casino, which opened in April 1990, filed for bankruptcy in July 1991. Trump Plaza and Trump Castle went through similar procedures in 1992, and the Trump Hotels holding company in 2004 and 2009. The list of failed commercial ventures also includes Trump Steaks, Trump Airlines, Trump Shuttle, and Trump Vodka.
Donald Trump himself never personally went through bankruptcy proceedings — all legal processes involved only his companies, while numerous creditors and partners incurred massive losses. This historical pattern has fully manifested itself in the new cryptocurrency projects as well.
My professional assessment: Investments in crypto projects affiliated with the Trump family represent a classic "pump and dump" scheme leveraging a powerful political brand. Retail investors, guided by emotion and loyalty rather than rational analysis, systematically fall victim to this model. The data is relentless: losses ranging from 90% to 99% from peak values across all reviewed assets. This is not just risky investing — it is financial suicide for those who are not insiders.