Senate Memo Says Trump-Linked $TRUMP Meme Coin Lost 97% of Value, Leaving About 1 Million Holders 'Nearly Wiped Out'

A Senate investigative panel’s Democratic staff says the Trump-linked $TRUMP meme coin has lost about 97% of its value since launch, leaving roughly 1 million holders “nearly wiped out,” as scrutiny of the token has spread across securities regulators, ethics watchdogs and congressional investigators.

The key public record is not a single new Senate letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission alleging fraud after a “98% collapse.” Instead, lawmakers have pursued several separate actions aimed at different parts of the issue: the SEC’s approach to meme coins, possible ethics concerns tied to token promotion, and a Senate inquiry into the coin’s launch and trading.

The latest and most detailed congressional document is a 12-page memo released July 27, 2026, by minority staff for the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations working for Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. Titled “Bound to Fail: Stories from Inside the Price Collapse of $TRUMP Coin,” the memo says the token “dropped 97 percent in value since its launch” and that about 1 million holders were “nearly wiped out.”

The memo includes investor interviews and analysis of the token’s launch, trading mechanics, fees and alleged insider activity. It says interview accounts “portray issuers, payment platforms, and liquidity providers combined in sophisticated and novel arrangements that served to disorient $TRUMP coin customers for the benefit of well-connected insiders, none more so than Donald Trump.”

The staff memo also cites outside reporting and blockchain analysis suggesting that retail buyers suffered steep losses while a smaller group of early participants made large gains. Separately, The New York Times reported July 4, citing analytics firm Nansen, that nearly 1 million people who bought $TRUMP had lost about $3.8 billion by the end of June 2026. The memo further cites reporting and analysis alleging that Trump and Trump-linked entities generated hundreds of millions of dollars in fees or royalties, while early wallets recorded substantial gains. Those figures are allegations and reported estimates cited by investigators, not enforcement findings.

Fight Fight Fight LLC is identified in congressional materials as the issuer or operator of the $TRUMP meme coin, which launched Jan. 17, 2025. Congressional materials say President Donald Trump promoted the token publicly, and investigators treat that promotion as central to its appeal to retail investors.

Congressional scrutiny unfolded in stages. On March 21, 2025, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts wrote to the SEC, asking the agency to explain its approach after SEC staff issued guidance on meme coins.

A month later, on April 25, 2025, Warren and Sen. Adam Schiff of California wrote to the Office of Government Ethics, the executive branch agency that oversees ethics rules, asking it to examine concerns tied to a proposed “Dinner with Trump” for top token holders. “The American people deserve the unwavering assurance that access to the presidency is not being offered for sale to the highest bidder in exchange for the President’s own financial gain,” they wrote.

Then, on May 6, 2025, Blumenthal, through the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, opened a subcommittee inquiry and sent document requests to Fight Fight Fight LLC and related entities.

The SEC piece matters because the agency’s Division of Corporation Finance said in a Feb. 27, 2025, staff statement that many meme coins of the type described there generally are not securities, meaning they may fall outside the SEC’s usual registration and disclosure framework. “It is the Division’s view that transactions in the types of meme coins described in this statement, do not involve the offer and sale of securities under the federal securities laws,” the statement said.

The same staff statement also said fraudulent conduct involving meme coins could still be pursued under other federal or state laws. That helps explain why lawmakers have split their scrutiny among the SEC, ethics officials and Senate investigators rather than relying on a single securities-law case.

As of the documents reviewed here, there is no public SEC enforcement action specifically charging $TRUMP with fraud.