Curious trade came just on January 9th afternoon-a bet of $ 1,096,109 less than two minutes after the soon-to-date US president posted on his social media account that his family had released a cryptocurrency called $ Trump.
In the first minutes, a crypto portfolio with a unique identification code starting 6qsc2cx provided a giant load of these new signs – 5,971,750 of them – with the opening price of only 18 cents, starting an increase in price Trumpit $ that will soon reach $ 75 per sign.
This early trader, whose identity is unknown, left with a two-day profit to $ 109 million, according to an analysis of the New York Times.
But the rapid profits for early traders, whose names are unknown, but some of whom appear to be located in China, came to the expense of a much larger number of slower investors who have suffered cumulative More than $ 2 billion in loss after the price of the price of the token price was dropped.
Since the middle of this week, more than 810,000 wallets had lost money in the bet, according to a examination that the cryptocurrencies firm performed for the New York Times. Total losses are almost much greater: data does not include transactions that took place in a series of popular cryptocurrency markets that began to provide currency only after its price had already increased.
$ Trump’s pricing withdrew about $ 17 this week, less than a quarter of its $ 75 peak value.
Whether people made or lost money, it was stellar business for Trump. Nearly $ 100 million in trading tariffs leaked to the family and its partners, although most have not yet been collected, chain data show.
President Trump began this chew three days before being inaugurated, causing a quick boom and bus sequence.
He promoted the currency on his social media platform as well as Elon Musk’s X, saying, “Join my very special Trump community. Get $ Trump now.”
The chain of events is not surprising at all, said some former state and federal financial regulators.
Effective is a part of the drafting of the entire meme industry, which is legal but largely unregulated. The trading is built on large early purchases by sophisticated traders pumping the price, just to sell their properties as retail investors follow their running and buy, and often end with losses.
What makes this situation particularly disturbing, for government guards and former regulators is that the Trump family is taking advantage of this exploitative model at the same time Mr. Trump is moving rapidly to bring an unexpected end to a regulatory blow to you crying out by some agency governments.
“The president is participating in shady cryptic schemes that damage investors while at the same time appoint financial regulators that will support protection for victims and who can isolate him and his family from implementation,” said Corey Frayer, I Which recently left a post as a post as a Crypto adviser to the Insurance and Exchange Commission.
Losses on the $ Trump bet were very true to hundreds of thousands of investors, including some who are Mr. Trump’s loud supporters.
In the days before Mr. Trump swore, Shawn M. Whitson, 40, by Walnut Cove, NC, owner of a small business repair business, had celebrated Mr. Trump’s return to the White House. “Today, we take our country again!” Mr. Whitson wrote, with a photo of Mr. Trump, on the day of inauguration. He also expressed hope that $ Trump will rise in price.
But by the end of January, Mr. Whitson was fed. “Made with this shit $ Trump,” he wrote in a post on social media. Mr. Whitson, reached by Times on Friday, expressed disappointment. “This coin is a joke.”
Over the past six months, President Trump and his sons have made a series of aggressive fortresses in the crypt industry. While Mr Trump promoted Crypto in the campaign trail, he also helped start a company called World Liberty Financial, which offered a digital currency called $ WLFI for some rich investors in financial markets.
Last week, Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Mr. Trump’s social media platform, Trump, Trust Social, announced it was switching to the financial services industry creating a brand known as Truthfi that will offer connected investment products with Bitcoin.
Trump Media chief, Devin Nunes, called the offer “a competitive alternative to smart funds and debit problems you find throughout the market”.
But $ Trump’s $ Memine’s debut was the first time the Trump family had traded a new sign of cryptocurrency directly to ordinary investors.
At the request of the times, cryptocurrencies rebuilt some of the early trade made by buyers of Mr. Trump’s sign, examining their profit and how, after starting beginners to throw their properties, the price of $ Trump U dropped, hurting, hurting other investors.
The analysis of cryptocurrency transaction records was executed by Nansen and Chainization forensic firms, as well as Molly White, an independent cryptocurrency researcher who is often critical to the industry. The data were then revised by Times.
This model of big, fast buyers who enter and then sale from their meme property is part of the reason that state regulators in New York recently warned consumers of these offers, saying that “creators or collaborators They artificially inflate the price of coins and then sell their currencies at a swift price, reaping significant profits as the price falls. “
New York regulators called these maneuvers “pump and dump schemes” and said they could leave buyers who come late with great losses.
No evidence has turned out that Mr. Trump or his artificially inflated co -workers the price of the currency or engage in internal trading. Asked about the start of trade and profits, the President’s middle son, Eric Trump, refused to comment.
Initial weapon
In the world of cryptos, every transaction is recorded in a publicly visible booklet known as a blockchain. Typically, the names of the trade people remain hidden, with each account identified only by a long chain of letters and numbers.
Blockchain allows cryptos analysts to go back and watch new offers and decipher what each wallet did – when he first invested, when he transferred any signs or sold them, and which came out of the final profit and loss for each game . This analysis can also indicate anomaly in trade that ask questions.
For example, Blockchain’s data show that the $ Trump sign was “mined” at 9:01 pm in Eastern time on January 17, creating a so -called contract address. Not announced by Mr. Trump for another 12 hours.
But the account after the first major public acquisition – bet $ 1,096,109 – was created about three hours before Mr. Trump to start the currency, find an analysis of public cryptocurrency transaction records. It was filled that evening with virtual coins, seemingly ready to throw a new offer.
Good -time trade and the fact that the wallet received its funds shortly before the launch of Mr. Trump’s currency immediately withdrew skepticism from cryptic analysts, who speculated that a trader had acted in information inside.
In the world of cryptos, the connection of the person behind a trade is sometimes impossible. It is common for people to post big and sometimes unverified claims on social media before disappearing suddenly, making it difficult for amateur investors to distinguish legitimate investment from fraud.
This month, an X account claiming to represent a Dubai -based cryptocurrency dealer called Syed Sameer posted that he owned one of the wallets that had orchestrated the first giant $ Trump trade worth $ 1.1 million.
Mr. Sameer, who also claimed to be an investor at World Liberty Financial, was later accused of X of using internal information to get the $ Trump sign at the beginning.
But the Times examination found inconsistencies in the claims on Mr. Sameer’s website and account X. After he faced those issues, Mr. Sameer said in messages in the Telegram conversation app that he did not really control the portfolio.
Mr. Sameer had lied to “to influence, to be honest with you,” he said. “I know it’s stupid and childish, but yes, I was getting confused.”
Lucky 31
What is clear, based on Blockchain Records, is that the person behind that $ 1.1 million trade is a big player in the middle released.
After making the purchase, the account owner then moved rapidly to sell the coins, generating a profit of at least $ 50m, according to the transaction analysis by Aurelie Barthe from Nansen. Further sales brought total profits to $ 109 million, according to the review by Ms. White.
Other large $ Trump trade has also attracted attention, including one of a trader who began buying the currency about two minutes after it was launched. The trader then sold those lands $ Trump in less than half an hour, with a net profit of $ 2.7 million, Blockchain says.
Little less than 700,000 wallets recorded profits at $ Trump, the chain exam says. Early trade were some of the most profits: 31 of these large early traders made $ 669 million in profits in a few days, according to Nansen’s analysis.
But for every winner, there were even more losers.
During the first 19 days of trading, a total of 813,294 wallets recorded losses, whether earning money in losses or holding coins that had fallen in value.
Loss – those who pay more for the sign than worth it now – cumulatively lost $ 2 billion, in current losses or on paper. However, many of these traders are keeping in their signs of money loss, perhaps in the hope that the price will rise again, the data show.
Profits provided mainly by early buyers were large: a total of $ 6.6 billion in early profits, according to the chain.
This is a model known to cryptocurrencies. A few weeks before the start of $ Trump, some of the same wallets that bought the president’s sign also traded a Memein named Hawk Tuah, promoted by social media influencers Haliey Welch.
Hawk Tuah’s currency grew up in December after being first introduced in a $ 490 million market capitalization, and then crashed into $ 10 million since this week, leaving thousands of investors with losses and generating a lawsuit that He claimed to have “created a speculative rage” and violated the federal law. (Ms. Welch told X that she was “completely cooperative with her and I am committed to helping the legal team representing the affected individuals.”)
“This is similar to sports betting or gambling,” said Gareth Rhodes, a former Superintendent in the New York State Financial Services Department, which helps regulate the cryptocurrencies and other financial services companies. “The retail consumer who sets their funds is doing so at risk of losing more if not all in the hope of a big pay.”
Sheelagh McNeill Contributed research.