The U.S. consumer advocacy group Public Citizen released a report stating that multiple cryptocurrency ventures linked to the Trump family have resulted in combined unrealized losses of at least $4.7 billion for investors, while these projects generated approximately $1.4 billion in revenue for Trump during the same period in 2025. The controversy extends beyond the projects' profits and losses to include potential conflicts between the president’s personal financial interests and legislation governing digital assets.
The unrealized losses primarily come from TRUMP and WLFI.
This report tracks five categories of Trump-related products, including the Official Trump memecoin, the WLFI governance token of World Liberty Financial, the USD1 stablecoin, Trump digital trading cards, and Trump Media’s digital asset reserves.
Among these, the TRUMP memecoin was the largest source of losses. Public Citizen estimates that investors who purchased this token have collectively incurred unrealized losses of approximately $3.2 billion. Holders of WLFI have suffered losses of at least $1 billion, while Trump Media shareholders have recorded paper losses of approximately $450 million due to their digital asset reserves. The digital trading cards segment accounted for losses of approximately $9.3 million.
- Trump investors are unrealized losses of approximately $3.2 billion
- WLFI holders have lost at least approximately $1 billion
- Losses related to Trump Media amount to approximately $450 million.
The report does not list USD1 as a primary source of loss because this stablecoin is designed to be pegged to one U.S. dollar and has not experienced sustained depegging. Public Citizen stated that the figures above include both realized and unrealized losses, so the total remains subject to adjustment based on price fluctuations.
Early holders concentrated their profits
The report states that trading in the TRUMP token resembles a transfer of wealth from later buyers to early participants, rather than the entire value disappearing into thin air. According to Nansen data cited, approximately 1 million retail wallets are in loss, accounting for 65% of the sampled wallets.
Meanwhile, profits are highly concentrated. The top 1% of wallets collectively earned approximately $2.7 billion, accounting for about 80% of all profits; wallets that entered just two days before the token’s launch captured nearly 90% of the gains. TRUMP launched on January 17, 2025, with its price rising from under $1 to a peak of $73.43 before giving up most of those gains.
Trump's income and the controversy surrounding the bill are escalating simultaneously.
While investors suffered losses, Public Citizen estimated that Trump earned approximately $635 million in 2025 solely from brand licensing fees related to the TRUMP memecoin. The report states that Trump’s company, CIC Digital LLC, participated in the project primarily through brand licensing rather than purchasing tokens as a typical investor.
World Liberty Financial is another major source of revenue. Public Citizen estimates that Trump earned approximately $527 million from WLFI token sales in 2025, plus approximately $30 million from early sales of the project in 2024, resulting in total revenue of about $557 million. An additional equity transaction contributed approximately $65.6 million in gains.
The financial disclosure documents also show that Trump reported holding over $50 million in Bitcoin in cold wallets, a smaller position in Ethereum, approximately $1.8 million in Ethereum staking rewards, and continued exposure to WLFI and USD1.
Public Citizen subsequently called on Congress to amend the CLARITY Act to require the current president and immediate family members to divest from cryptocurrency businesses. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly denied that Trump’s business interests pose an ethical issue, stating that the president does not participate in the management of his companies. Previously, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal had requested the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether the TRUMP token involves fraud or improper gains.