Crypto offers an extremely lucrative way of making money. It's also an easy way to get duped.Case in point: supporters of President Donald Trump who bought his meme coin, $Trump, amid a wave of enthusiasm preceding his inauguration.As , while a few cashed out in time to steal away with huge profits, the vast majority over 810,000 wallets were left holding the bag. Collectively, the unlucky suckers lost more than $2 billion after the price of the coin crashed.That said, just under 700,000 managed to cash out with a profit, fat or slim, totaling $6.6 billion. But a sizable chunk of that, about $699 million, was clinched by just 31 early investors.It appears that the house, as always, has won. According to Chainalysis data cited by the NYT, the Trump family and its partners made out with nearly $100 million in trading fees alone. Currently, the $Trump coin is at around $15, which isn't even a quarter of its $75 peak.Trump has been involved with crypto ventures in the past, like his foundering stablecoin project, World Liberty Financial. But as the NYT notes, this enterprise is the first time that the president and his family directly marketed a new crypto token to investors, with Trump advertising it on his personal X account.That the US President is so nakedly pushing dodgy tokens should be cause for alarm, especially because Trump has signaled his intent to deregulate the blockchain currency industry, vowing to make the US the "crypto capital of the planet." Trump has reportedly directed the Securities and Exchange Commission to ease back on crypto enforcement, while his right-hand man Elon Musk, himself involved in dodgy crypto maneuvering in the past, has mused about putting the US Treasury on the blockchain.If it wasn't clear already that Trump's ripping off his own supporters, an investigation into the $Trump coin transactions conducted by Nansen and Chainalysis at the NYT's request, makes the shady nature of the whole affair pretty clear.The $Trump token was created on the morning of January 17, just days before his inauguration, according to blockchain records, and would not be announced by Trump for another 12 hours.The biggest winner bought around $1.1 million worth of coins when it was priced at just 18 cents. After two days, they cashed out with a profit as high as $109 million. What a stroke of luck, right?Well, it turns out that the account behind that incredible investment was made a mere three hours before Trump launched his coin, which reeks of insider trading."The president is participating in shady crypto schemes that harm investors while at the same time appointing financial regulators who will roll back protections for victims and who may insulate him and his family from enforcement," Corey Frayer, who recently stepped down as crypto adviser to the SEC, told the NYT.Share This Article