Trump's cryptocurrency only made money for a few, while many lost money. Did the stock markets rush?

• The largest cryptocurrency exchanges have released the TRUMP memcoin, backed by the US President's trust fund, in record time.
• The initial great enthusiasm caused by the debut of the cryptocurrency and the inauguration of the president quickly faded and now the Trump cryptocurrency is very far from reaching the "all-time high" level.
• According to stock exchange data, they earned huge sums of money from the TRUMP issue, as did a small group of investors.

According to Reuters, the $TRUMP token, which launched three days before his inauguration in January, is a meme coin . Based on trendy cultural trends or celebrities, these coins have no intrinsic value and, as experience has shown, are prone to large price swings that can expose investors to large gains and losses.

Cryptocurrency exchanges launched TRUMP memcoin at record speed

A Reuters analysis of market data and industry news found that, compared to other major meme coins, major cryptocurrency exchanges have launched Trump coins with remarkable speed, even as they say they thoroughly vet risky coins to protect small investors .

Some exchanges also approved the listing despite the high proportion of coins concentrated in the hands of Trump and his associates, which would normally be a red flag due to the risk that token sales by insiders could crash the price and harm other investors.

After a great debut, there were mainly declines

After reaching an all-time high of $75.35 on January 19 just two days after its launch, the TRUMP cryptocurrency plummeted to $7 in early April , leaving many holders with massive losses. The current rate is around $9.54.

“When the president of the United States launched a meme coin, I thought I could invest some money in it,” said Carl “Moon” Runefelt, a Dubai-based cryptocurrency investor who runs a bitcoin trading YouTube channel called “Moon Show.”

Runefelt said he bought $300,000 worth of the meme coin in $50-$60 increments: " It's probably one of my worst trades ."

The rapid pace of TRUMP issuance was due to the great demand

A Reuters analysis found that eight of the 10 largest cryptocurrency exchanges by market share listed the coin within 48 hours of its launch . The ninth, Coinbase, added it to its listing plan on January 18—meaning it accepted it—and listed three days later. The tenth, Upbit, listed TRUMP on February 13. This is significantly faster than the average for the largest meme coins.

Reuters examined how long it took the same 10 exchanges – Binance, Gate.io, Bitget, MEXC, OKX, Coinbase, Bybit, Upbit, Crypto.com and HTX – to list the four largest meme coins launched since 2022.

By market capitalization as of May 29, these cryptocurrencies are: Pepe, Bonk, Fartcoin, and dogwifhat.

All 10 exchanges have implemented Pepe and Bonk. Nine exchanges have implemented Dogwifhat, and seven have implemented Fartcoin.

On average, the 10 exchanges listed these coins within 129 days. In the case of the TRUMP digital coin, it took an average of four days.

When asked to comment on the rapid launch of $TRUMP, Bitget, MEXC, OKX, Coinbase, and Upbit said they made no compromises in the verification process. The remaining five exchanges did not respond to Reuters' inquiries. Three companies—Bitget, Coinbase, and MEXC—said they were reacting quickly to the overwhelming demand for the $TRUMP cryptocurrency.

“There has been a lot of hype in the cryptocurrency industry and, like any other token gaining traction, adding TRUMP was a necessity,” Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget, said in a statement.

Chen stated that the fact that Trump himself announced the launch of the cryptocurrency on his social media accounts "should sort of solve the compliance issue," citing the fact that "he's the president of the United States."

White House: We have nothing to do with this

Reuters found no evidence that Trump or anyone associated with his business exerted pressure on stock markets.

In response to a request for comment, a White House spokesperson told Reuters that the president's assets were transferred through a family trust: " There is no conflict of interest because the president does not manage these assets. Any insinuation of a conflict of interest is irresponsible."

Coinbase said the $TRUMP token was not subject to any special exemptions, and the exchange followed standard procedure in listing the coin. Paul Grewal, Coinbase's chief legal officer, said many people had to work over the weekend to quickly execute the listing, but no steps were skipped.

“Given the information publicly available, we were confident that users would be able to use the token positively and safely,” Grewal told Reuters.

Coinbase has listed TRUMP as an “experimental” token to indicate that it carries “certain risks, including price fluctuations,” according to the company’s website.

Coin validation often focuses on how well-known the issuer is , how likely it is to remain in the public eye, and how much engagement it has with the online community to maintain interest in the cryptocurrency—metrics that Santa Clara University finance professor Seoyoung Kim, who specializes in cryptocurrency analytics, believes TRUMP would score highly on.

Trump's Cryptocurrency Activity Criticized by Democrats

The president's influx of business ventures in the lightly regulated sector his administration is responsible for overseeing has drawn criticism from Democrats, consumer groups and former financial regulators.

“The launch of the president’s new meme coin is unavoidable,” said Corey Frayer, former senior cryptocurrency advisor at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Frayer is currently the director of the nonprofit Consumer Federation of America. "The president controls who oversees your business and how the law is enforced."

Under former President Joe Biden, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) maintained that most crypto tokens, including meme coins, should be regulated as securities, making exchanges wary of listing them. This quickly began to change after Trump's election last November.

Donald Trump the "cryptocurrency president"?

The US president dubbed himself the "cryptocurrency president," promising sweeping reforms to the sector's regulations . Following his election, Coinbase and several of its competitors began listing more meme coins.

During Trump's second term, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) halted or withdrew high-profile enforcement actions against cryptocurrency operators, including a major investor in the Trump family's cryptocurrency project, and issued a statement saying meme coins do not constitute securities.

The Trump family has launched numerous cryptocurrency ventures, earning hundreds of millions of dollars . The TRUMP token quickly earned around $320 million, though it is not publicly known how this amount was divided between the Trump-controlled entity and his partners.

Exchanges have benefited greatly from Trump's involvement in the industry. TRUMP Coin generated significant revenue for the 10 exchanges included in the Reuters review: more than $172 million in transaction fees, according to estimates based on standard fees collected for the news agency by CoinDesk Data, a provider of cryptocurrency industry data.

It turns out that trading in this cryptocurrency favored a small group of investors . According to transaction data analyzed by analytics firm Bubblemaps, 45 cryptocurrency wallets had earned a combined total of about $1.2 billion as of June 18, while another 712,777 wallets had lost a combined total of $4.3 billion.

Some exchanges, when introducing TRUMP, continued trading despite what they had previously identified as a red flag: 80% of the cryptocurrency's supply was held by the Trump family and its partners .

This high concentration of ownership could allow the team behind the coin to sell large quantities at once, leading to a price drop for retail investors.