TRUMP meme coin whale makes $11.8M profit from strategic trades

The TRUMP meme coin surged on January 18, 2024, after the announcement of President-elect Donald Trump. One major crypto whale took advantage of the situation and bought 860,895 TRUMP tokens for $12 million at an average price of $13.94, as revealed by Lookonchain.

A whale dumped 860,895 $TRUMP for 23.8M $USDC just now.

This whale spent 12M $USDC to buy 860,895 $TRUMP at $13.94, then sold it at $27.67, making a profit of $11.8M!https://t.co/1f98ch5Pi4 pic.twitter.com/nfuYYShyij

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) January 18, 2025

During the price increase, the same investor sold all of his stake at the average price of $27.67 per share, which resulted in a $11.8 million profit. At the same time, there were reports that Trump’s team sold $500 million worth of tokens, maintaining control of 85% of total tokens. This revelation has raised issues of market manipulation as well as the future of the coin.

A wave of high-profile trades 

The token’s meteoric rise has attracted several high-profile traders to the token. Lookonchain also reported that a wallet called “LeBron” exchanged $1 million USDC and bought 4.52 million TRUMP tokens within the first 5 minutes of the launch, and the investment grew to over $2 million.

Another trader made headlines after turning $1.1 million into $70 million within four hours. The individual sold 1.35m TRUMP tokens for 3.65m USDC while holding on to 4.62m tokens worth $67.5m.

Turned $1.1M into $70M in just 4 hours—incredible!

This trader has sold 1.35M $TRUMP for $3.65M, and still holds 4.62M $TRUMP($67.5M), bringing his total profit to over $70M!https://t.co/m1k6zmKgLA pic.twitter.com/U3IeU23PER

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) January 18, 2025

The pseudonymous crypto trader 0xsun also profited from the rally and used $653,000 to buy approximately 1 million tokens with 3,000 Solana (SOL). By selling part of their holding for $812,000, they made a profit of more than $3.7 million.

Market activity was also boosted by large investors, or ‘whales’. One whale moved 61,205 SOL — which is more than $14.3 million — from OKX to buy 1.27 million TRUMP tokens. Another also used 8.5 million USDC to buy 1.03 million tokens at an average price of $8.28.

Even with the sharp selloff, TRUMP surged to a record high of $35, then pulled back slightly. Currently, the token is priced at $26.72 and has risen dramatically by 328% in the last day. However, only 200 million of the total 1 billion tokens are currently in circulation, which raises the question of how further token emissions can affect the market. 

Trump enters the cryptocurrency market

The project was revealed by Trump on his social media pages with the token intended to represent triumph and recovery. “My NEW Official Trump Meme is HERE! It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING!” he wrote.

The coin’s official website refers to it as a symbolic digital asset with no utility, meaning, or use as a medium of exchange or a store of value.

As reported by Cryptopolitan, concerns have been raised over this particular token’s authenticity, especially due to its close association with Trump.  As of this writing, its market capitalization has reached almost $6 billion, as shown by CoinMarketCap.The proposed plan of the project is to release 800 million more tokens in the next three years, which has raised concerns regarding the pressure that it will have on the prices. 

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