The $350 Million Question: Is Trump’s Memecoin a Corruption Machine?
The Financial Times analyzed a crypto project Donald Trump launched ahead of his inauguration: the $TRUMP memecoin. It found that wallets associated with the project recently sold a large block of their holdings, netting some $350 million. Trump had previously hyped the memecoins on social media to millions of people.
The $TRUMP coin price plummeted following these market-moving sales, from a high of ~$75 to around $13 as of this writing. The related $MELANIA coin has fared even worse, down ~92% since it was launched a few days after $TRUMP.
You would think that investors would be furious. That people who invested (*cough* speculated *cough*) would be rioting outside the White House, but I can’t find anyone complaining. None of Trump’s loyal supporters on social media have said anything remotely critical, as if it’s totally normal for a sitting President to have a crypto project he quickly sold out of to generate $350 million, thereby cratering its market and leaving other investors holding the bag.
The most interesting question about this was not asked by the Financial Times or anyone else, at least as far as I can tell. It does not involve Trump’s conflicts of interest or his abuse of power by pumping and dumping this memecoin. It does not even relate to the (at least a few) retail investors who lost money.
The big question is: Who are the investors holding the bulk of the bag? Who effectively gave Trump and his team $350 million via a $TRUMP memecoin that has no utility apart from speculation? Bitcoin may have minimal utility, but at least it’s somewhat of an inflationary hedge for which there’s a bigger and more liquid market (although it’s not a safe haven, nor is it digital gold).
While many of the investors who lost money remain anonymous, which may be precisely the point, we do know at least one of them.
Justin Sun and his $75 million purchase of Trump’s memecoin
Justin Sun is a Chinese crypto entrepreneur who recently had his civil fraud case stayed just months after announcing his $75 million purchase of Trump’s memecoin, $TRUMP. The Trump family is entitled to 75% of the revenues from the project, according to the crypto project’s website.
In late February 2025, almost one month after Trump’s inauguration, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and Sun jointly requested a judge to stay the case “to explore a potential resolution.” The judge agreed. This means the SEC agreed to stop pursuing enforcement of the matter and is agreeing to settle, likely on far favorable terms than what Sun was previously facing.
Sun and his companies — Tron, BitTorrent, and Rainberry — had been charged by the SEC for selling unregistered securities and fraudulently manipulating the price of its digital token, Tronix. Now, Sun may have his case dismissal wish granted.
The timing of Sun’s $75 million purchase of Trump’s memecoin is too closely aligned with the staying of his case for it to be a mere coincidence. While we have no direct evidence that Sun made a quid pro quo deal with Trump, the fact pattern illustrates how the $TRUMP memecoin could be the biggest fraud and public corruption vehicle in American history.
Buy Trump via the $TRUMP memecoin
If Justin Sun was able to purchase $75 million of the $TRUMP memecoin and shortly thereafter have his case against the government stayed, it signals an invitation for corruption. Want to influence Trump? Buy $TRUMP.
The best part? It’s effectively anonymous. Russian oligarchs, Saudi princes, shady businessmen, and dictators around the world now have direct and secretive access to influencing the President of the United States.
In addition to anonymity, any money used to buy $TRUMP for influence only looks like trading losses when Trump sells and the price goes down. It’s money laundering disguised as crypto trading.
Why this is not on the front page of every news website, newspaper, or social media feed is completely baffling.
We know at least $75 million of Trump’s ~$350 million gains from selling out of $TRUMP came from Justin Sun, but what of the remaining $275 million?
It reminds me of an essay I previously wrote that questioned who posted the collateral for the $91 million bond Trump made in his defamation case against E. Jean Carroll. An insurance company, Chubb Insurance, posted the bond, but it was never clear what collateral (if any) Trump provided himself.
Trump always seems to find a way to accept funds or have others post them through covert means (remember Michael Cohen?). So, crypto projects involving memecoins are a natural fit. Trump’s social media prowess, combined with the secretive and opaque nature of crypto, is the perfect scheme to hype a product while also providing a mechanism to get paid without public scrutiny.
The possibilities here are endless. While everyone focuses on conflicts of interest, abuses of power, and the transaction fees Trump and his family generate from their memecoin projects, Trump can do far worse. He can sell America to the highest bidder.
To be clear – I’m not saying he is doing that per se. But the $TRUMP memecoin scheme and the fact pattern involving Justin Sun make it more than a possibility. The worst part? There’s nothing anyone can or likely will do to stop it.
Too many norms, not enough laws
I have written about this previously, following Trump 1.0. America is a nation of too many norms and not enough laws that apply to its highest-ranking government officials. The constitutional system is designed with the assumption that everyone in government will respect each other and play by the rules.
Until someone like Donald Trump comes along and upends all of those nice, respectable norms. Suddenly, the Department of Justice is led by a Trump loyalist and used as if it’s Trump’s own law firm. Elections can be questioned without credible evidence. And Presidents can use the office for personal financial gain.
Trump was one of the only Presidents in U.S. history not to put his business interests in a blind trust. Yes, he handed over authority to his children, but he was still very much connected to the business and enjoyed the benefits of foreign dignitaries (and U.S. Secret Service members) paying exorbitant rates at his D.C. hotel.
Remember, this is a guy who broke the tradition of revealing his tax returns for the first time since Richard Nixon. Who would have thought that Nixon would look squeaky clean next to someone?
The biggest problem is that there is no federal law that explicitly requires U.S. presidents to disclose tax returns or use blind trusts for business dealings while in office. Trump was just the first President who was brave enough to give the middle finger to anyone asking him to take those steps.
Yes, there are laws governing conflicts of interest and emoluments, but the latter must be connected to the public office. In the case of the $TRUMP memecoin, it was launched prior to Trump officially taking office, and it’s technically not managed by Trump directly.
Basically, there are easy, indirect ways of getting around the laws that do exist. And, especially with crypto projects, we need clear laws that apply to government officials, particularly the president.
We’re otherwise left guessing. Where did that $350 million come from? Who was left holding the bag of losses? Were they actually losses, or were they actually payments to Trump that were disguised as crypto trades? Why are no retail investors pissed that they lost money on $TRUMP? Could any of these “losses” be better defined as secretive campaign contributions?
All U.S. citizens, regardless of political party, should demand basic minimum legal standards for presidential business dealings and conflicts of interest. But we all know that won’t happen anytime soon, especially when this memecoin activity is so profitable for the sitting President.
And honestly, why should Trump do anything different? Congress is in his pocket, and the Supreme Court has hardly checked his authority. If anything, they significantly expanded it after Trump v. United States (holding that Presidents are generally immune from “official” acts while in office).
This is why the $TRUMP memecoin has the potential to be the biggest public corruption scandal in U.S. history. It’s staring at all of us in the face in broad daylight. Trump is hiding nothing while using the inherently opaque nature of the crypto market to his advantage. That advantage is valued at some $350 million now, but this is only the beginning.
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