Trump's Crypto Trades: A Mixed Bag of Gains and Losses
Key Summary
President Donald Trump's recent crypto trades, including buying and selling Coinbase and Strategy shares, have raised questions about his trading instincts. While his purchase of Strategy stock outperformed Coinbase, his sale of Coinbase shares fell short of expectations, with the stock down 20.6% in 2026. Trump's larger transactions, including a SpaceX loan and Meta stock buy, dwarf his crypto trades.
Background
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Analysis of Trump's Trades
Recent ethics filings from President Donald Trump show that he sold shares of Coinbase Global and bought shares of Strategy Inc. on August 10, 2026. Both trades fall within the smallest reporting band of $1,001 to $15,000. An earlier filing noted that Trump also bought both stocks in July, suggesting this latest Coinbase sale was part of a quick trading cycle.
Performance of the Stocks
Since these transactions, both stocks have seen growth. Strategy's share price surged 58.6% from its August 10 close to its October 9 close, while Coinbase's shares rose 20.7%. This suggests that the stock Trump purchased has outperformed the one he sold.
Larger Transactions
Trump's filing included 517 transactions reported through a Form 278-T, which senior officials file with the Office of Government Ethics to disclose their financial trades. The report is dated September 17 and was made public on October 8, covering transactions made entirely in August. These filings report trades as dollar ranges rather than specific amounts. For example, a trade listed in the range of $1,001 to $15,000 could be any amount within that range.
Comparison of Trump's Trades
Below is a summary of Trump's crypto-related trades alongside his more significant transactions. The bottom of the SpaceX band alone is more than 66 times the top of the Coinbase or Strategy band. Additionally, NVIDIA appears multiple times in the filing, with one notable purchase falling in the range of $500,001 to $1,000,000 on August 17. The purchase of SpaceX notes is essentially a loan, not an equity stake. These notes carry a 5.35% interest rate and mature in July 2031. 'Senior' means the lender gets paid before shareholders if SpaceX faces financial difficulties, while 'unsecured' indicates that no specific asset backs the loan. Therefore, the investor collects interest regardless of SpaceX's performance.
Conclusion
The filing lacks execution prices for the trades, so we use daily closing prices for comparison. Coinbase's stock closed at $149 on August 10 and rose to $179 by October 9, indicating a gain in Trump's sold shares. However, since both trades are in a small dollar range, the gain Trump missed by selling could be relatively modest. It's unclear whether this sale completely closed Trump's Coinbase position or just reduced it. Over a longer period, Coinbase's performance raises concerns. The stock is down 20.6% in 2026 and has plummeted 53.6% over the last year, driven largely by reduced trading and a corresponding drop in fee revenue.