On August 27, 2626, the NGO Public Citizen published a report which revealed the extent of the damage caused by Donald Trump’s crypto products. The contrast is particularly striking: the US president will collect $1.4 billion in 2025, while his investors’ losses amount to more than $4.7 billion.
In brief
- A report from the NGO Public Citizen, published on August 27, 2026, puts the losses of investors in Donald Trump’s crypto products at $4.7 billion.
- The president personally earned $1.4 billion in 2025 through these same products, without investing a cent in them.
- The $TRUMP memecoin alone accounts for $3.2 billion in losses, with 65% of buyers today in the red.
- The report comes ahead of a key US Senate vote on crypto regulation, scheduled for September 15.
A damning report on crypto investor losses
The report is called “Thin Air, Real Money” and was written by Zach Everson, research director of the Trump Accountability Project at Public Citizen. He sifts 5 families of digital assets :
- NFT Trump Digital Trading Cards;
- the WLFI token launched in August 2025;
- the $TRUMP memecoin;
- the USD1 stablecoin;
- Trump Media’s crypto treasury.
The result is unequivocal: together, these crypto products caused their holders to lose at least $4.7 billion. THE memecoin $TRUMP nevertheless concentrates most of the losses with 3.2 billion dollars gone. An analysis carried out by Nansen at the request of Public Citizen even reveals that 65% of wallets currently display a negative balance. At the time of writing, this crypto asset is trading around $2.70 (a far cry from the high of $73.43 reached just two days after its launch).
For its part, the WLFI governance token shows nearly a billion dollars in losses. Furthermore, its value has fallen by more than 80% since its ATH of September 2025. NFT cards have lost almost three quarters of their initial value since 2022. The report published by Public Citizen shows a cumulative deficit of $9.3 million.
The only notable exception? The USD1 stablecoin. Generally speaking, it retains its value.
Trump’s $1.4 billion win reignites conflict of interest debate
In his financial statement for 2025 (certified on June 30, 2026), Donald Trump claims $1.4 billion in revenue from its crypto activities in 2025. The report is all the more shocking to the extent that the American president claims not to have invested a single cent from his own pocket.
The figures reveal a very different reality:
- $7.2 million via NFT card royalties;
- $557 million from the sale of the $WLFI token;
- $635 million in licensing fees on memecoin $TRUMP;
- $197 million in capital contributions made to World Liberty Financial.
Co-founded with his sons Donald Jr. and Eric, this DeFi project also guarantees him continued participation in the platform’s future revenues.
Certainly, these amounts in no way mean that Trump enriched himself on the latent losses of his crypto investors. However, they are relaunching the conflict of interest debate. In this context, Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert accuses the president of having transformed his position into a tool for enrichment. An accusation obviously contested by the White House!
Public Citizen report comes at a key moment for crypto regulation in the United States
According to the schedule, the Senate must vote on the CLARITY Act on September 15. Strongly supported by the Trump administration, this bill aims to clarify the status of digital assets. However, Public Citizen denounces its inadequacy on ethical issues.
Concretely, the NGO is calling for a law clearly prohibiting a sitting president from launching, holding and even less promoting a crypto asset subject to his own regulation. Along these lines, Zach Everson said:
The president’s policy choices and his personal portfolio cannot be separated.
THE report also emphasizes the international connections of these crypto products. Indeed, part of the USD1 stablecoin is held by interests based in the United Arab Emirates. The Binance crypto exchange plays a central role in the circulation of several of these assets.
In any case, this case shows how celebrity, power and crypto can merge. For the crypto market, a fundamental question arises: how to guarantee the integrity of the rules when the first regulator is also a major player in the sector?
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