Trump fans put millions of dollars into a gold phone and a memecoin. Neither has gone well

Nearly 600,000 deposits worth $60 million have been collected for a gold T1 phone that has not been delivered to a single confirmed buyer, with terms quietly rewritten in April to remove delivery guarantees.

What to know:

• Sixteen months after launch, the Trump Mobile T1 phone has collected about $60 million in $100 deposits from roughly 600,000 buyers, but has not delivered a single confirmed device, media reports indicate.
• An April update to Trump Mobile’s terms of service states that deposits are only a conditional opportunity to buy a phone, with no contractual delivery obligation, refund mechanism or guarantee that a device will ever be offered.
• The TRUMP memecoin has fallen about 97% from its peak to $2.45, with onchain data showing billions in estimated retail losses and a shrinking holder base as large insider token unlocks continue to add selling pressure.
• Both the phone venture and the TRUMP token capitalized on early political enthusiasm around Donald Trump, but have since struggled to convert that momentum into delivered products or durable investor demand.

Two Trump-branded ventures aimed at retail buyers are both in difficult positions months after their debuts, though for different reasons.

Roughly 600,000 buyers have paid $100 deposits for the gold-colored Trump Mobile T1 phone since its initial announcement, putting around $60 million into a venture that has not delivered a single confirmed device as of May 2026, per Moneywise.

Deposits were paid to Trump Mobile's registered company T1 Mobile LLC, which uses a limited liability agreement from DTTM Operations, LLC – the company that manages intellectual property, trademarks, and likeness on merchandise associated to U.S. president Donald Trump.

Wow those Gold Trump phones that 590,000 people paid a $100 deposit on still haven’t been delivered after told they would be by September so NBC who bought one tried to call the Company & there’s no phone number only a email.They asked if they could get a refund & were told NO!😂 pic.twitter.com/EucWcjyorm

— Suzie rizzio (@Suzierizzo1) November 26, 2025

Promised delivery dates have slipped from late summer 2025 to November, then to December, and finally to first-quarter 2026, before being removed from the website entirely.

According to IBTimes reporting, the company updated its terms of service in April to clarify that deposits represent a "conditional opportunity" to buy the device if the company chooses to sell it, removing any binding contract. (CoinDesk has not independently reviewed the previous version of the terms.)

Trump Mobile did not respond to a request for comment send by email as of publication time.

The TRUMP memecoin, a separately structured venture, has had its own difficult run. The token launched in January 2025 at $1.21, zoomed to $73 within 48 hours as retail speculators piled in around the inauguration, and has spent the 16 months since grinding lower.

TRUMP traded at $2.45 on Monday, down roughly 97% from its peak and 82% on the year, CoinGecko data show. Chainalysis estimated retail investors in TRUMP have collectively lost roughly $2 billion since its introduction.

TRUMP launched with 80% of supply held by Trump-affiliated entities CIC Digital and Fight Fight Fight, with those tokens scheduled to unlock at approximately $500,000 worth per day (at current prices) through mid-2028. The schedule was disclosed as part of the token's launch terms, but has produced sustained sell-side supply during a period of declining buyer interest.

TRUMP's daily DEX trading volume has dropped from a January 20, 2025 peak of nearly $7 billion across roughly 400,000 traders to about $16 million across just 4,200 traders on May 5, 2026, per Dune Analytics data tracked by user @seoul.

That is a 99% drop in both daily turnover and unique daily participants. Average trade size has fallen from around $2,700 to $260 over the same period, suggesting the remaining buyers are smaller retail accounts rather than the larger speculators who drove the original launch.

The share of TRUMP holders with more than $1,000 in the token has collapsed from roughly 19% at launch to about 2% today, meaning almost every remaining wallet now holds less than $1,000 worth of TRUMP. The token has effectively settled into a long tail of small bag-holders with no large position holders left to drive meaningful price action.

For TRUMP holders, the onchain math suggests that a return to launch-era valuations is becoming increasingly unlikely. At current prices, the remaining insider token unlocks represent more than $2.5 billion in potential supply overhang.

Absorbing that supply would require a demand event larger than anything the token has seen since launch, with the token down 13.6% over the past 30 days and roughly 0.1% on the day.

A dinner hosted by Trump for the top 220 token holders at his Virginia golf club in May 2025 produced a rally that faded within weeks. Tron founder Justin Sun pledged $100 million in TRUMP purchases ahead of the July 2025 unlock, with the token continuing to drift lower in the months that followed.

A separate Mar-a-Lago Crypto & Business Conference on April 25, 2026, limited to the top 297 TRUMP token holders with VIP access for the top 29, drew a letter from Senators Warren, Adam Schiff (Democrat, California), and Richard Blumenthal (Democrat, Connecticut) requesting documents about the President's role in promoting the event.

While Trump tokens and the mobile ventures have different structures and mechanisms, they debuted on the back of front-loaded political enthusiasm, and have struggled in the months since to translate that initial momentum into either delivered product or sustained price support.

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