Will Trump sell his position on cryptocurrencies for the dollar? Probably not, because of the risk of collision

• Trump’s cryptocurrency value reached $73 billion at its peak.
• CIC Digital, a subsidiary of the Trump Organization, controls 80% of Trump’s coins.
• Insider sales could hurt the coin’s price, making it difficult for Trump to cash out his gains.

Donald Trump’s full embrace of cryptocurrencies during the election campaign culminated in a launch His meme symbol Shortly before his inauguration, but the president may have a hard time cashing out the staggering gains from the Trump coin.

The meme launched on Friday and by Sunday peaked at a fully diluted market cap of about $73 billion. The currency has since fallen by about 50% but still has a fully diluted value of about $38 billion.

Within days, Trump became one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency billionaires — at least on paper.

CIC Digital, the issuer of Trump Coin and affiliated with the Trump Organization, controls 80% of the coin’s supply, worth about $30 billion as of Tuesday afternoon.

according to The official website of the token10% of the remaining supply is for general distribution, and another 10% is for “liquidity.” The site also says that 1 billion Trump coins will be issued over three years, with 200 million currently available.

While CIC Digital controls 80% of the token supply, that does not necessarily mean it can sell that share at current prices.

This is because a sell-off will likely cause the price of the token to drop significantly.

“Tokens held by insiders could spread that supply, resulting in losses for unsuspecting investors,” Gautam Chogani, an analyst at Bernstein, said of CIC Digital and its Trump token holdings.

Investors have seen this with Trump-linked assets before, especially with volatile trading in shares of Truth Social’s parent company, Trump Media and Technology Group.

Trump owned about 60% of Truth Social shares, and when his lockup ended in September, the stock fell on fears that he would unleash a wave of selling that would drown out any demand for the stock.

When Trump said he had no plans to sell Truth Social, the stock price soared.

The same dynamic applies to the President’s coin. Any tendency for CIC Digital insiders to sell the token will likely create downward momentum for its price.

“Given how quickly the token is reaching stratospheric market capitalization, the 80% supply held by insiders is creating some pressure on its market value,” Chogani said.

The analyst added that while meme coins come and go, a token directly tied to the president probably has more staying power than most. However, the ownership structure may make it less attractive.

“In this case, a meme that leverages Trump’s brand and policies has a potentially long life but will rely on the token’s potential design to make it less mined due to the 80% internal supply by Trump affiliates,” Chogani said. “The Trump team pursued the launch of a new currency called the Melania Dollar, and the market reacted negatively to the further dilution of the brand as market participants saw it as extractive.”

Correction: January 21, 2025 – An earlier version of this story misstated when Donald Trump’s lockup of Truth Social stock expired. That was in September, not earlier this year.