A new report from Public Citizen, a U.S. consumer advocacy nonprofit and think tank, alleges that President Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency ventures have resulted in at least $4.7 billion in investor losses since 2022. The figure, first reported by Cointelegraph, covers several projects tied to the Trump family, including the World Liberty Financial governance token WLFI, Trump NFT Trading Cards, the TRUMP memecoin, and Trump Media’s digital asset fund.
According to Public Citizen, the bulk of the losses stem from memecoin investments, which account for an estimated $3.2 billion of the total. The report notes that losses tied to investment in WLFI’s stablecoin USD1 were relatively limited. The analysis covers a period of rapid expansion in Trump-branded crypto offerings, from the initial NFT collections in late 2022 to the more recent launch of the TRUMP memecoin in early 2025.
The report does not specify an exact timeline for all losses but suggests that retail investors who bought these tokens near their peaks have faced significant drawdowns. For instance, the TRUMP memecoin, which launched with much fanfare, saw its price decline sharply within weeks of its debut, leaving many late buyers with substantial unrealized losses.
The findings add to growing scrutiny over celebrity-endorsed and politically connected crypto projects. Public Citizen highlights the risks retail investors face in highly speculative token offerings, especially those with strong brand recognition but limited underlying utility. Regulators, including the SEC, have been increasingly focused on the classification of such tokens, and whether they are deemed securities could have significant legal consequences for the projects and their promoters. The report also raises questions about conflict-of-interest concerns involving a sitting president’s family engaging in largely unregulated digital asset ventures.
