Nearly half of Trump’s crypto sweepstakes winners lost money

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump will host the top holders of his cryptocurrency at a gala tonight at his private golf club near Washington, DC. Though the president has called the $Trump token “The Greatest of them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”, nearly half the gala’s guests suffered losses from purchasing it, according to a Guardian analysis of their public cryptocurrency wallets.

The attendees are winners of the US president’s meme coin competition. Last month, Trump announced that the 220 crypto wallets with the largest holdings of $Trump between 23 April and 12 May would win a ticket to a private dinner at the Trump National golf club. The top 25 holders would also be invited to a “Private VIP Reception” with the president beforehand. The news caused the coin to spike more than 50 percent.

Buyers were ranked by their “time-weighted” holdings, which reached 11.3m coins – worth approximately $148m in total as of 12 May. Snapping up the coin propelled entrants to the top of the leaderboard. However, the Guardian’s analysis of crypto wallets on the Solana blockchain suggests that many have been burned along the way.

Of the 220 winners, 95 – some 43 percent – have suffered a net loss from purchasing $Trump since the coin’s January launch, a combined $8.95m, according to trading history and portfolios as of 21 May. A contestant under the username “GAnt” appears to have endured the biggest losses. Despite placing fourth on the leaderboard, buying the tokens has led to a $1.06m shortfall. Similarly, user “Meow” is down $621,000, despite achieving VIP status. This aligns with a broader trend: it’s believed that 764,000 wallets – mostly belonging to small holders – have lost money on $Trump, according to data from the cryptocurrency and blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis. Meanwhile, just 58 wallets have made more than $10m each on their purchases of the coin, per Chainalysis. The cryptocurrency is trading 68 percent below its all-time high when it peaked the day before the president’s inauguration.