Trump family crypto schemes cost investors $4.7B, Public Citizen says

Investors in crypto projects linked to the Trump family have lost more than $4.7 billion since 2022, according to a report published Thursday by the watchdog group Public Citizen.

The largest single source of losses was the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin, which the president unveiled three days before his second term began. The token hit a trading price above $73 within two days of its launch and is now valued below $2, the report said. Public Citizen estimated the memecoin accounted for $3.2 billion in losses.

Those losses represent wealth that shifted to early investors, the report said. Data showed that 1% of wallets held 80% of the gains, while 65% of wallets were underwater, accounting for the $3.2 billion total.

President Trump himself did not lose money. He contributed no cash for his own allocation, which is valued at $271 million, and collected $635 million in licensing fees from the token last year, the report said.

World Liberty Financial's governance token, tied to projects established by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., accounts for another $1 billion in total losses. The token peaked at $0.33 in September 2025 and now trades below $0.06, according to Public Citizen. Private purchasers who bought in at $0.015 or $0.05 are up 15% to 283%, while public market buyers who bought near the peak may be down 83%.

Trump's 2022 NFT trading cards, issued at $99 each, saw their overall value fall from $12.3 million to $3 million, leaving holders roughly $9.3 million in the red. Trump collected $7.2 million in licensing fees and royalties from those cards, the report said.

One project avoided the pattern. "Buyers of World Liberty's USD1 stablecoin haven't suffered major losses," Public Citizen wrote.

The report tallied Trump's earnings from the projects: $7.2 million from NFT licensing fees, more than $600 million from World Liberty token sales and equity, $635 million from memecoin licensing fees, and $197 million in capital contributions to World Liberty. Those amounts contributed to Trump's 2025 crypto-related earnings totaling $1.4 billion, not including his equity positions.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Cointelegraph. Spokesperson Anna Kelly previously stated there "were no conflicts of interest" regarding Trump's crypto assets.

Zach Everson, research director for Public Citizen's Trump Accountability Project and the report's author, urged critics not to mock those who bought in. "Trust me, I get the desire to sneer," he wrote in a Thursday post, before arguing that buyers "got screwed over nevertheless."

Public Citizen used the findings to renew its call for ethics provisions in the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, arguing that "the president's policy choices and personal portfolio cannot be separated" and that any market-structure law should force a sitting president and his family to divest from the industry.

The timing is deliberate. Trump met with crypto executives last week and called for a "fair version" of the CLARITY Act to pass once the Senate reconvenes. The bill faces a cloture vote on September 15 and needs at least 60 senators to move forward.