Retail Investors Lost $4.3B on TRUMP and MELANIA Tokens

When President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump launched their official memecoins just days apart in January 2025, millions of retail investors rushed in, drawn by the political branding and early price surges. What followed was one of the most documented wealth transfers in memecoin history.

Retail investors have reportedly lost more than $4.3 billion on the official TRUMP and MELANIA memecoins, with nearly two million wallets now sitting on deep losses after both tokens collapsed more than 90% from their January 2025 highs. 

A CryptoRank report published Friday laid out the full scale of the LOSS, showing that insiders extracted over $600 million through fees and token sales while ordinary buyers absorbed the losses at a ratio of 20 to 1.

How Did TRUMP and MELANIA Memecoins Start?

Just days before the start of his second presidential term, Donald Trump launched his official memecoin, which rapidly climbed to an all-time high (ATH) of $75. Two days later, First Lady Melania Trump launched her own token, which hit an ATH of $13.05 within 24 hours.

The launches drew massive trading volumes and early profits for those who got in and out quickly. For most retail buyers, however, the timing worked against them. As of this writing, TRUMP trades around $3.28 and MELANIA around $0.11, representing drops of 92% and 99% from their respective highs.

How Much Did Retail Investors Actually Lose?

The CryptoRank report lays out who gained and who took the hit:

• Retail losses exceed $4.3 billion across nearly two million wallets currently underwater
• Insiders cashed out over $600 million through fees and token sales
• Just 45 whale wallets extracted a combined $1.2 billion
• 58 wallets made more than $10 million each
• For every dollar an insider earned, retail investors lost $20

Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, cited by CNBC, confirmed that most of the wallets that lost money held smaller amounts of the token, pointing to a large number of ordinary retail buyers rather than institutional players taking the hit.

The Mechanics Behind the Losses

Analysts have pointed to specific technical structures that systematically transferred value from buyers to whales, regarding the TRUMP token.

One key mechanism involved one-sided liquidity on Meteora, a decentralized exchange built on the Solana blockchain, according to Trader and Investor, ‘Sasha why NOT.’ In a standard automated market maker (AMM) setup, liquidity providers deposit two assets into a pool, for example a token and a stablecoin like USDC. 

Instead, developers reportedly deposited only their own tokens with no dollar-denominated pair. The AMM algorithm then automatically sold those tokens into incoming buy orders, converting the proceeds directly into USDC. Per Sasha, this effectively turned retail buying pressure into whale profits in real time, with analysts tracking tens of millions in transfers to Coinbase even during peak hype.

The $2.7 Billion Still Locked Until 2028

The selling pressure may not be finished. CryptoRank noted that $2.7 billion worth of insider tokens remain locked under vesting schedules that expire in 2028. That date aligns with the end of Trump's current presidential term.

Analysts have noted the timing raises questions about the long-term tokenomics of both tokens. If unlocked tokens hit the open market at the end of the vesting period, current holders could again exit liquidity for a final round of insider selling.

Who Was Behind the MELANIA Token?

The controversy around MELANIA deepened when reports linked Hayden Davis to the project as one of the figures behind its launch. Davis is also connected to the LIBRA token, an Argentine memecoin that collapsed in February 2025 after insiders were found to have extracted millions through similar liquidity manipulation tactics. 

The LIBRA incident had already drawn significant attention for showing how memecoin launches can be structured to benefit a small group of insiders at the direct expense of retail buyers.

Conclusion

The TRUMP and MELANIA situation is now one of the largest documented retail loss events in memecoin history. Unlike typical memecoin collapses driven purely by fading hype, CryptoRank's data suggests the structure of both launches made retail losses a near-mathematical certainty for any buyer who was not among the earliest insiders.

Resources 

1. CryptoRank on X: Post on Feb. 20

2. Blog article by “Sasha why NOT”: Insiders Took $1.2B While Retail Lost Everything: The Trump Tokens Breakdown

3. Report by CNBC: 58 crypto wallets have made millions on Trump’s meme coin. 764,000 have lost money, data shows

4. Report by Forbes: $MELANIA Under Fire: First Lady’s Memecoin Was Part Of Fraudulent Scheme, Lawsuit Alleges—What To Know