- Onchain data shows the majority of Trump memecoin buyers are retail investors, Chainalysis says.
- Many buyers created their wallets the day they purchased the token.
Most buyers of President Donald Trump’s controversial memecoin are retail investors, with many using Solana for the first time to buy the token.
That’s according to blockchain forensics company Chainalysis, who looked at the behaviour of wallets buying the TRUMP and MELANIA memecoins since their launches late last week.
“These are largely new retail buyers,” Chainalysis said in an X post. “Nearly half of buyers created their wallets the day they purchased the tokens.”
Onchain data also shows that around 50% of users who hold TRUMP and/or MELANIA tokens have never bought another Solana token, excluding SOL and stablecoins like Circle’s USDC.
On January 17, just days before his inauguration, Trump shocked the crypto industry by launching an official memecoin on the Solana blockchain. Many in the crypto industry have described Trump’s memecoin as a cash grab, warning that it will tarnish the already controversial industry.
“Anyone who understands our space knows that memecoins are pretty much a vehicle for gambling and that celebrity memecoins are frowned upon and viewed as a grift,” Cameron Chisholm, frontend developer for TikTok-like crypto investment platform Token.com, previously told DL News.
Onchain data compiled by GeckoTerminal shows that over 782,000 individual wallets hold the Trump memecoin.
Chainalysis found that most wallets hold less than $100 worth of the memecoins, and over 80% are investors who hold less than $1,000 worth of assets on Solana, further suggesting retail popularity.
Trump’s status as president may give uninitiated memecoin buyers a false sense of security, and blindside those who lose money on the token.
Memecoins, joke tokens that trade solely on their popularity, have soared in popularity over the past year.
Their extreme volatility makes them popular with hopeful retail traders looking to hit it big. But for every winner there are thousands who lose everything.
Trump meme
In its first few days, the TRUMP token skyrocketed to a $15 billion market value. Its value has since halved after Trump’s wife Melania launched her own memecoin, and the president failed to mention crypto in his inauguration speech.
The Melania token likely lured traders away from Trump’s memecoin as traders rushed to invest in the latest Trump family coin.
Despite the slump, the Trump memecoin is still crypto’s third-biggest meme token, behind Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, which are valued at $51 billion and $11 billion, respectively.
A whale’s game
While smaller retail traders make up the majority of TRUMP holders, they aren’t the ones who made the most profit.
60 wallets belonging to whales have so far made profits of over $10 million trading TRUMP, according to Chainalysis.
Whale is a crypto term for large entities who control large amounts of a token of crypto asset, usually in the millions of dollars.
Chainalysis said whales also dominate holdings, with around 40 whale wallets holding 94% of all TRUMP or MELANIA tokens.
A DL News analysis previously identified two whales who invested around $1 million each into TRUMP shortly after its launch. They were at one point sitting on $304 million and $78 million from their investments, respectively.
Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.
