There’s Now a Depressing Tally of Winners and Losers in the Trump Memecoin Story

In crypto, you can often just look at publicly available records and count the number of winners and losers. One such study from a blockchain analytics firm called Nansen, as reported on by the New York Times, tells a sad story—the story of people who bought Trump memecoins.

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As you’re probably aware, a recent financial disclosure says the president himself is a big crypto winner. That disclosure notes that Trump made about $635 million off this particular memecoin, just a small part of his already infamous crypto haul.

But almost 1 million $Trump buyers are losers, having been hosed for about $3.81 billion in total up to the end of last month. Back-of-the-envelope math (that is: dividing 3.81 billion by 1 million) will tell you the average loss was $3,810.

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. Go to https://t.co/GX3ZxT5xyq — Have Fun! pic.twitter.com/flIKYyfBrC

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2025

The number of winners from the $Trump story is about half—roughly 5,000, according to Nansen. They made just about the same amount, $4 billion, “capturing enormous gains while the broad retail majority absorbed the losses,” the report says.

Memecoins have been criticized as essentially slush funds—ways for the personality around which a memecoin is built to absorb the wealth of supporters and fans. One study has claimed that memecoin investment is rife with market manipulation, saying “82.8% show evidence of artificial growth strategies designed to create a misleading appearance of market interest.” Probably don’t buy memecoins if you want my thoughts on the matter.