A Few Whales And A Bunch Of New Retail Traders: What To Know About Who's Buying $trump Coin

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• The $Trump meme coin was the highlight of the crypto market this week.
• The meme coin has attracted a handful of big "whale" investors, but also lured crypto first-timers.
• The concentration of whales holding the $Trump coin could drive increased volatility.

Issuance of the official $Trump coin was the headline event of the crypto market in the last week, quickly becoming the 25th largest cryptocurrency by market value days after its debut.

The token has attracted a few large "whale" investors, but it's also caught the attention of retail, with many first-time crypto buyers among them.

According to Joshua de Vos, head of research at CCData, the trading volume in $Trump coin since issuance has rivaled some of the largest cryptocurrencies out there.

"TRUMP has traded over $50 billion, rivaling SOL at $68 billion, ETH at $102 billion, and BTC at nearly $200 billion across top centralized exchanges," de Vos told Business Insider.

With a market valuation of $7.5 billion, and a fully diluted market value of about $37 billion, a lot of money has poured into the meme-coin, pushing its value up by nearly 500% since its debut, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

So, who's buying the president's meme coin?

According to an analysis from Chainalysis, it's a mix of a handful of so-called "whales," or large investors, and retail investors wading into the crypto market for the first time.

At the larger end of the investor spectrum, 29 crypto wallets each hold more than $10 million worth of the coin, and five wallets each hold more than $100 million worth of $Trump coin.

"Whales dominate holdings," Chainalysis said in a thread on X.

The firm found that around 40 whales each holding more than $10 million of $Trump or the $Melania coin that debuted a day later account for 94% of the holdings of both meme tokens.

By comparison, Grzegorz Drozdz, market analyst at Conotoxia, told BI that about 61% of bitcoin's total supply is concentrated among whales who hold over $10 million worth of the coin.

"Caution is advised with projects like $Trump, as they may be highly susceptible to manipulation by major players," Drozdz warned.

But there's also a large swath of retail investors that have piled into $Trump coin, according to Chainalysis.

"Most wallets that hold $TRUMP and/or $MELANIA hold less than $100 worth, suggesting retail buying activity," Chainalysis said.

Moreover, many of these retail investors buying the $Trump coin are new to Solana, the blockchain on which the meme coins were issued.

"These are largely new retail buyers. ~50% of $TRUMP and/or $MELANIA token holders have never bought a Solana altcoin before," Chainalysis said, adding that nearly half of $Trump coin buyers created their wallets on the same day they purchased the tokens.

Some who have said they bought the token online say that their support for the president was the big draw.

"We love Trump. I just bought a bag full of his crypto coin," one user on Truth Social said.

A user on Reddit mentioned that they bought the $Trump coin because "Trump likes to be the best in whatever he does so surely he's gotta want to have the biggest meme coin on the market."

However, some expressed dismay at the president's foray into crypto.

"Big supporter. I prayed. I donated. I waited and watched. We won. But, this crypto thing is not good for our economy. Crooks hide money along with other shady characters," a Truth Social user said. "Who made money on this meme coin? Who bought it first? Insiders? It wasn't me. It's too late now. How is this fair? It's not."

On the profit side, even after $Trump coin declined about 50% from its peak, most wallets holding the meme coin are in the green or have broken even, according to Chainalysis.

More than 77% of wallets that hold $Trump coin have earned less than $100, while 60 whales have earned more than $10 million, the firm said.

Some of those whales are already cashing out.

According to data from Nansen, the whale wallets with the highest profits already cashed out to realize some gains, "selling most of their TRUMP before the inauguration on Monday," the firm said in an analysis shared with BI.

"The top P&L wallet shows $59 million in unrealized gains and $44 million in realized profits," Nansen said.

Chainalysis cautioned that it's still early days for a volatile meme coin whose value has fluctuated wildly. The $Trump coin is down 52% from its record price of $75.35.