Report: Trump's cryptocurrency project causes investors to lose $47 billion

It is estimated that crypto companies associated with the family of U.S. President Donald Trump have caused investors to lose at least US$4.7 billion, while Trump himself will make a profit of approximately US$1.4 billion in 2025.

Trump-related crypto asset losses are estimated at US$4.7 billion

A watchdog has conducted investor loss estimates on five Trump-related products, including the official Trump memin, World Free Finance's WLFI governance token, USD1 stablecoin, Trump Digital Trading Card, and Trump Media's digital asset library. Most of the losses came from Trump's memin, which estimates that its buyers lost $3.2 billion. World Free Financial's WLFI tokens caused at least US$1 billion in losses, while Trump Media's digital asset pool caused approximately US$450 million in losses to shareholders. Trump's NFT trading card added at least another $9.3 million in losses. The agency did not include a significant loss on USD1 because the world's free stablecoin was designed to maintain the value of USD1 and there was no sustained decoupling.

The agency said its $4.7 billion estimate includes realized and unrealized losses. Buyers who continue to hold devalued tokens have not yet locked in these losses, and if the price rebounds or falls further, the final amount may change. The agency also pointed out that Trump's memin transactions mainly transfer wealth from late-stage buyers to small groups that enter early, rather than disappear entirely. According to analysis by blockchain intelligence company Nansen, approximately 1 million retail wallets (65% of the study sample) had a total floating loss of US$3.2 billion. Of this, only about $400 million was a loss realized through sales. The top 1% of wallets with the highest profits captured approximately $2.7 billion, accounting for 80% of all profits, while wallets that entered the market two days before the token issuance accounted for nearly 90% of profits.

Trump's memoin will be launched on January 17, 2025, three days before the president returns to the White House. Its price climbed from less than $1 to an all-time high of $73.43, but then gave up almost all of its gains. It was previously reported that as of the end of June, nearly 989,000 wallets had realized and paper losses of US$3.81 billion. Different wallet screening conditions and measurement dates may result in different totals, so the analysis results are inconsistent with the watchdog's estimate of $3.2 billion.

Trump makes hundreds of millions of dollars from Trump's memin and WLFI

While buyers suffered losses, the watchdog calculated that Trump received $635 million in 2025 from Trump's mini-related licensing fees. Trump's company, CIC Digital LLC, licenses its name and brand to token projects rather than buying tokens like ordinary investors do. The two companies associated with the project retain 80% of the total supply of Trump's 1 billion minocoins, and these positions plan to gradually enter circulation within three years. According to the agency, these companies also earn income from trading activities, and they can earn fees even if the market price of the token falls.

World free finance constitutes another major source of income. Trump received $527 million from WLFI token sales in 2025, and combined with approximately $30 million in sales revenue from the first three months of the 2024 project, his estimated revenue from the governance token reaches $557 million. The agency said an equity deal added another $65.6 million. According to company documents, court records and its financial disclosures, Trump owns 70% of an entity that holds a 38.25% stake in World Liberty Financial and receives 75% of the proceeds from WLFI token sales after deducting certain fees.

Open market buyers of world free finance face different results. WLFI reached its all-time high of $0.3313 on September 1, 2025, but the agency valued it at $0.05744 when preparing the report. As a result, buyers who entered the market at the highest point lost as much as 83%. AI Financial Corporation (formerly known as ALT5 Sigma) accounted for the majority of WLFI's estimated losses. The Nasdaq-listed company acquired 7.28 billion WLFI tokens for approximately US$1.46 billion in August 2025, but reduced the valuation of the position to US$421 million by the end of June 2026, with a book loss of approximately US$1.04 billion. Of the approximately 31,000 retail wallets purchased WLFI through a decentralized exchange on Ethereum, Nansen found that 25,000 (82%) were in floating losses as of August 3. The loss-making wallet lost a total of $54 million, while the profitable wallet only made a profit of $24 million. The activities of centralized exchanges are not included because the required account-level data is not disclosed. As a result, the agency described its $1 billion WLFI estimate as a minimum.

Financial disclosure shows cryptocurrency revenue reaches US$1.4 billion

Trump's June 2026 annual financial disclosure put his 2025 crypto-related revenue at more than $1 billion, with some calculations pushing it to nearly $1.4 billion. These revenue mainly comes from memin license fees, world free token allocations, equity sales, and USD1-related earnings. Financial disclosures show that revenue is calculated separately from current holdings. License fee payments and token sales revenue record funds received during the reporting period, while holdings describe assets still owned at the time of filing. Trump reported a cold wallet Bitcoin position worth more than $50 million, a smaller Ethereum holdings, and approximately $1.8 million in Ethereum pledge rewards. The disclosure also records ongoing holdings of WLFI and USD1 exposures, although federal ethics forms typically place asset values within ranges rather than giving precise balances.

The watchdog estimated that Trump earned at least $7.2 million from license fees and secondary market royalties on four series of digital transaction cards. About 175,000 cards have been issued, of which three series initially generated $12.3 million in sales, but had a total market value of approximately $3 million at the time of evaluation. For Trump Media shareholders, the agency estimates losses related to the company's digital asset pool at $450 million. The agency accounted for equity exposure because investors bought shares in the U.S. -listed company, and the company subsequently invested corporate funds in cryptocurrencies.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly denied there were ethical issues with the president's business interests. She said neither Trump nor his family had any conflicts of interest, while the White House insisted that the president was not involved in the management of his company.

CLARITY Act faces new ethical requirements

After releasing its damage estimates, the watchdog called on CLARITY Act to require the current president and his immediate family to withdraw funds from crypto companies. The group believes federal digital asset policy is "indelible" from the president's private financial interests. The bill would establish a federal classification of digital assets and divide regulatory powers between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. It also includes registration, custody, disclosure and client asset terms for companies that serve U.S. investors. Moral restrictions remain one of the more contentious parts of Senate negotiations, along with decentralized financial rules and incentives for stablecoin balance payments. Democratic lawmakers have pressured to limit crypto assets held by elected officials, while the White House has denied that Trump's crypto enterprise influences its policy decisions.

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal had previously asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Trump's meme facilitated fraud or improper profits after its price fell about 98 percent from its peak. Their request does not establish securities fraud, and the agency needs to determine whether federal securities laws apply to the token before it can open such an investigation. Trump met crypto executives and federal regulators at the White House on Aug. 19, where he asked lawmakers to approve a "fair version" of the legislation. Attendees included executives from digital asset companies such as Coinbase, Robinhood, Kraken, Ripple and others. The Senate plans to hold a procedural vote at 2:15 p.m. Eastern Time on September 15. The support of 60 senators is needed to end the debate before consideration of the bill can begin. After a procedural motion is passed, it still requires amendments, a final Senate vote, and coordination with the text already passed by the House.