Key Takeaways
- The TRUMP memecoin team has quietly cashed out $94 million in USDC over the last three weeks.
- This slow unwind lets insiders profit without a sudden crash, but it adds selling pressure and hurts the token’s price.
- It’s not a full rug pull, but retail buyers have lost big as the price sits low around $5 after early highs.
The developer team behind the official TRUMP memecoin, which was launched last year before Donald Trump’s inauguration, has been slowly pulling out millions worth of liquidity from the token.
Liquidity provision in memecoins like TRUMP typically involves depositing tokens and stablecoins (e.g., USDC) into decentralized exchange (DEX) pools to facilitate trading. A removal from these pools indicates shallow investor confidence.
Trump Memecoin Team Withdraws Over $90 Million
According to on-chain analyst Lookonchain, wallets linked to the TRUMP memecoin have withdrawn a total of $94 million in USDC from liquidity pools and deposited the funds into Coinbase.
On Dec. 31 alone, a team-controlled wallet removed $33 million in USDC from liquidity pools and transferred it to Coinbase.
The funds originated from single-sided liquidity positions on Meteora, a Solana-based decentralized exchange.
In these pools, the team supplies only TRUMP tokens.
As trades occur within preset price ranges, the mechanism automatically sells TRUMP into USDC.
This structure avoids direct spot-market selling, reducing immediate price shocks while steadily extracting value from liquidity.
The TRUMP memecoin, launched on Jan. 17, 2025, as an official token tied to Donald Trump and his family through the Trump Organization and associated partners, has faced repeated allegations of liquidity manipulation and rug-pull-style behavior.
Recent on-chain data suggests that wallets associated with the project’s deployer and core team have been methodically converting TRUMP holdings into USDC and moving the proceeds to centralized exchanges such as Coinbase.
Rather than a sudden “hard rug pull,” the activity suggests a gradual, systematic unwinding, which has coincided with the token losing more than 90% of its value since its peak.
Slow Rug Pull or Portfolio Rebalancing
The latest liquidity withdrawals follow a pattern that has played out throughout 2025.
While insiders have continued to profit through fees, controlled sales, and liquidity management, retail holders have largely absorbed the losses as prices slid.
On-chain behavior suggests the same playbook was used for the MELANIA memecoin, pointing to coordinated activity behind both Trump family–linked tokens.
MELANIA launched just days after TRUMP and exhibited similar liquidity dynamics, reinforcing suspicions that the same group orchestrated and promoted both projects.
Investigators have also drawn alleged links between these wallets and actors previously associated with the LIBRA memecoin.
Liquidity removal has not been limited to a single event.
Earlier in the year, wallets tied to the project sent millions of dollars’ worth of TRUMP tokens to centralized exchanges such as Binance and OKX.
When combined with trading fees and prior sales, estimated insider gains reached roughly $350 million, with value extraction continuing even as trading volumes declined.
TRUMP’s price now hovers around the $5–$6 range, down sharply from highs above $75.
Among retail traders, sentiment increasingly frames the token as a prolonged liquidity drain—one where losses accumulate quietly rather than through a single dramatic collapse.
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Prashant Jha is a seasoned crypto journalist based in Delhi, India, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science Engineering. Passionate about the evolving world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, he has been a dedicated voice in the industry since 2018. Prashant’s expertise lies in regulatory reporting, where he unravels complex legal and financial developments with clarity and precision. Before joining CCN in 2024, he honed his craft at Cointelegraph, establishing himself as a trusted name in crypto journalism.
His coverage spans major industry events, including the high-profile collapses of FTX, Three Arrows Capital (3AC), and LUNA, offering readers insightful analyses of their regulatory and market implications. Prashant’s technical background enables him to bridge the gap between intricate blockchain technology and its real-world applications, making his work accessible to novices and experts.
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