Trump meme coin investors must wait an extra 90 days before selling.
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A cartoon image of US President-elect Donald Trump holding a Bitcoin token to mark the cryptocurrency reaching over $100,000 displayed at a Coinhero store in Hong Kong, China, on Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. Justin Chin | Bloomberg | Getty Images
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will have to wait another three months before he can start selling his meme coin.
The $TRUMP token, which debuted in January just ahead of the president’s inauguration, was scheduled to begin unlocking a major tranche of insider-held tokens this month. However, the official X account for the Trump token stated this week that all major unlocks, including the initial cliff and the next three months of daily vesting, would be delayed by an additional 90 days.
Only 20% of the supply of $TRUMP is available to trade. The remaining 80%, held by insiders, is locked under a three-year schedule, with tokens released in increments. Lockups are meant to prevent a rug pull, the industry term for a scheme that allows insiders to quickly get rich while other investors suffer from slumping prices. Vesting schedules aim to reassure retail investors that early backers won’t flood the market with dumped coins.
The $TRUMP token offered an early indication of the president’s willingness to leverage his power and political brand for financial gain. The market cap quickly surged to $15 billion, buoyed by Trump’s posts on Truth Social and X that declared, “It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING!”
On Wednesday, the $TRUMP token soared more than 50% after the project’s platform offered dinner with the president on May 22 to the top 220 holders of the token at his golf club near Washington, D.C.
Democratic Senators Adam Schiff of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts are calling on the U.S. Office of Government Ethics to investigate whether the promotion constitutes “pay to play” corruption.
Like most meme coins, $TRUMP has no underlying product or service. Following its launch in January, First Lady Melania Trump swiftly introduced her own token — $MELANIA — which briefly surpassed $2 billion in market value before tumbling alongside $TRUMP.
Shortly after the release of the $TRUMP and $MELANIA coins, the SEC issued guidance stating that meme tokens do not qualify as securities, effectively shielding the projects from immediate regulatory scrutiny.
Despite trading restrictions, the token’s creators have already made a fortune. According to Chainalysis, the primary wallet behind $TRUMP earned more than $350 million in USDC, a dollar-pegged stablecoin, by acting as a market maker and collecting fees on each trade.
The Trump family has another crypto project in the works. World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance venture backed by the first family, has raised $550 million across two token sales since October. Buyers are barred from reselling their tokens and receive no share of profits, but a Trump-affiliated entity is entitled to 75% of net revenue, including token sale proceeds, according to offering documents.
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