BLUMENTHAL RELEASES STORIES FROM INSIDE THE PRICE COLLAPSE OF $TRUMP COIN

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] - U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), today released the testimonies of three investors in Donald Trump's crypto schemes who lost tens of thousands of dollars while the President made record-breaking profits. The individuals-each of whom requested anonymity-sat for interviews with PSI Minority staff during which they detailed their understanding of the President's meme coin projects and experience in having their investments in the $TRUMP and $MELANIA coins nearly wiped out.

Blumenthal released their testimonies in conjunction with a public forum on Trump's Crypto Corruption, convened alongside U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), a senior member of the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee.

A U.S. veteran lost $60,000 of the $70,000 he had invested in the $TRUMP and $MELANIA coins. He told PSI Minority staff, "When he launched the $TRUMP coin, I thought that it was not real, but then I saw that it was on his official Twitter. So, in January, I invested about $1000. Then he started tweeting about it again, so I thought it was legitimate. This is the president so I thought this was the biggest it could get. And like any other trading, you want to get in early. So, I put more money in."

A college student from Georgia told PSI Minority staff that he watched the $TRUMP and $MELANIA coins that he invested in rapidly decrease in value: "[I]n that collapse so many people lost money, the ones that were not the insiders. But the insiders made out on a lot of transaction fees and whatever they made."

An experienced meme coin trader from Colorado told PSI Minority staff, "The launch of the $TRUMP token, which was kicked off by Trump's social media posts, resulted in high volume and price run-up. Then it was followed shortly afterward by the $MELANIA token. This raised many questions for me, since the timing appeared to divert attention and capital from one token to the other. Whether that was intentional or simply the result of market dynamics is impossible for me to know. However, the sequence gave the appearance of benefiting certain market participants more than ordinary investors… I cannot say who was responsible or what their motivations were, but from an outside perspective, the market did not appear to operate on a level playing field."

Each of these accounts revealed common themes that connect their experiences:

• All three individuals felt that President Trump's endorsement and promotion of $TRUMP coin gave the project legitimacy.

• The $TRUMP coin and $MELANIA coin partnership with MoonPay, which allowed customers to purchase the tokens with a credit card in a one-click transaction, made onboarding unusually easy for a meme coin project and increased its appeal as an investment to less technical investors.

• The blockchain that hosted $TRUMP coin and $MELANIA coin suffered congestion during times of peak volatility and made it difficult to process orders, sometimes leaving investors unable to withdraw their funds for hours, helpless as the price of their assets dropped precipitously.

These testimonies underscore how the President used crypto to more efficiently pursue his own self-interest and demonstrate why the current status quo of the crypto industry is unacceptable. The individuals' testimonies are available here.

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