The official TRUMP memecoin is down more than -95% from its January 2025 peak of $75, and the traders who rode that wave up are done pretending the story has a second act. The upcoming Mar-a-Lago conference for the token’s top 297 holders drew just $1.4Bn in trading volume in the run-up, compared to $12.9Bn ahead of the equivalent 2025 dinner.
What makes this particular collapse worth paying attention to isn’t just the price; it’s the structure underneath it. Two entities, a Trump Organization affiliate and a company run by longtime Trump partner Bill Zanker, hold the overwhelming majority of the supply and collect fees on every trade made.
Trump’s memecoin, $TRUMP, was once the talk of Washington. It’s now down more than 95% from its 2025 high.
“People are losing on the coin, and they are vocal," said one crypto investor. "They are the people on Twitter like, ‘F–k this coin’ or ‘It’s a scam.’ And they’re right,…
— POLITICO (@politico) April 23, 2026
The Trump family and its partners had made $320M in memecoin-related trading fees as of April 2026, while retail buyers absorbed the losses. The math on who benefited here isn’t complicated.
TRUMP is trading today at $2.85, up a modest +1% on the day, with a 24-hour trading volume of $103M, and a market cap of $670M, making it the 86th-largest digital asset by valuation.
TRUMP: From $75 to the Bottom of the Barrel
The official TRUMP memecoin launched days before Trump’s January 20, 2025, inauguration, a timing that was, let’s say, deliberate. The token hit $75 almost immediately, fueled by a combination of political fervor, FOMO, and the kind of social media tornado that only a sitting U.S. president can generate.
The token shed more than half its value within days of the peak, and the bleeding never really stopped. Accusations of insider trading and conflicts of interest followed quickly, and the broader Trump crypto ecosystem hasn’t exactly helped sentiment.
Justin Sun, once the top holder at the 2025 dinner, sued World Liberty Financial over frozen WLFI holdings, adding another layer of dysfunction to an already bruised brand and sparking a very public war of words with Eric Trump.
Morten Christensen, a crypto investor still planning to attend the Mar-a-Lago event, put it plainly: “Nobody likes it. People are losing on the coin, and they are vocal. They are the people on Twitter who like, ‘F*ck this coin,’ or ‘It’s a scam.’ And they’re right, basically.”
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Can the TRUMP Memecoin Price Recover, or Is the Narrative Already Broken?
Let’s be direct: the on-chain structure of TRUMP makes a genuine recovery exceptionally difficult. When the majority of supply sits with two connected entities who profit from trading fees – not from price appreciation – the incentive alignment is off from the start. Think of it like a casino where the house collects a cut whether you win or lose. Retail traders are the product, not the customer.
David Grider, a partner at Finality Capital Partners, noted that memecoins are “very out of favor right now,” with investors broadly pulling back from speculative assets. Trump Media & Technology Group shares are down -75% since inauguration, adding to the sense that the entire Trump brand trade has deflated.
Even once-vocal critics on Capitol Hill are shrugging, a senior Democratic Senate aide called the Mar-a-Lago event “horrible and awful” but added, “people see it for what it is: a con… this has slipped to the bottom of the barrel.”
whoever is buying $TRUMP, i hope your plumbing breaks down in the middle of you taking a shit pic.twitter.com/7xHgfQYY2V
— TraderSZ (@trader1sz) April 22, 2026
Here’s how the three scenarios look from here:
- Bull case: Trump says something specific and actionable about $TRUMP during his Mar-a-Lago luncheon speech, triggering a short-term spike back toward $5–$8. Unlikely to hold without structural changes, but short-term traders could extract a quick move.
- Base case: The event passes without a meaningful catalyst, volume remains thin, and $TRUMP drifts in the $2–$4 range as the broader memecoin market stays out of favor. The token becomes a niche political collectible rather than a live trading instrument.
- Bear/invalidation: Senator Blumenthal’s probe into potential SEC violations gains traction, or further legal fallout from the Justin Sun and WLFI manipulation accusations spills over onto $TRUMP directly. In that scenario, the current price level offers no meaningful support, and sub-$1 becomes the honest target.
The event itself on April 25 is the next event to watch, specifically, whether post-speech volume spikes above $500M in a 24-hour window. If it doesn’t, the base case is already confirmed.
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The post Why Crypto Traders Are Turning on the TRUMP Memecoin appeared first on 99Bitcoins.
