Do you remember Trump's T1 phone? It took in 60 million dollars in deposits, but delivery is still nowhere in sight.

Donald Trump Brand Project Faces Difficulties. T1 Mobile collects $60 million but fails to deliver, causing Trump Coin to plummet over 90%, resulting in retail investors losing $2 billion, reflecting a market crisis after political hype.

As the political fervor subsides, two major brand projects face severe challenges

Two Donald Trump brand projects launched for retail investors, both encountered difficulties a few months after their debut. These projects are a physical phone and a meme coin, both initially leveraging market enthusiasm for Trump’s politics to attract large amounts of capital and attention. Over time, these projects faced the dilemma of being unable to convert initial market momentum into actual product delivery or sustained investor demand.

Sixty million dollars in deposits vanish, T1 Phone delivery remains distant

The gold-colored Trump Mobile T1 phone has collected deposits of $100 from approximately 600k buyers, totaling up to $60 million. Over 16 months since the project’s launch, as of May 2026, no confirmed devices have been delivered to any buyers. These deposits were paid to the registered company T1 Mobile LLC, which manages Trump-related intellectual property and trademarks through a limited liability agreement with DTTM Operations, LLC.

• Related news: Trump Phone T1 debuts! Foreign media criticize: Image P-ed, heavily plagiarized, basically a Chinese knockoff

The official delivery date has been repeatedly delayed, from late summer 2025 to November, December, then pushed into the first quarter of 2026, and ultimately removed entirely from the official website. The International Financial Times reported that the company amended its terms of service in April, redefining the deposit as a “conditional opportunity” to purchase the phone, explicitly stating that the company has no contractual obligation to deliver devices and does not guarantee future delivery, nor does it provide any refund mechanism.

Trump Coin Myth Shattered, Retail Frenzy Vanishes Over $2 Billion

The meme coin, Trump Coin ($TRUMP), operating independently of the phone project, also experienced a brutal crash and market shakeout. The token was issued in January 2025 at $1.21, and during the presidential inauguration, fueled by retail speculators flooding in, its price soared to $73 within 48 hours, then entered a long decline over the next 16 months. According to CoinGecko data, Trump Coin’s trading price is now only $2.45, a drop of about 91.7% from its all-time high, with an annual decline of 82%.

Image source: CoinGecko The trading price of Trump Coin is only $2.45, down approximately 91.7% from its all-time high

Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis estimates that retail investors have collectively lost about $2 billion on Trump Coin since its issuance. The daily trading volume of Trump Coin on DEX plummeted from nearly $7 billion and about 400k traders at its peak on January 20, 2025, to just $16 million and 4,200 traders, with both daily trading volume and number of participants decreasing by 99%. The average transaction size shrank from about $2,700 to $260, and the proportion of wallets holding over $1,000 of the token dropped from 19% at launch to about 2%.

Internal unlock pressures are heavy, VIP events fail to restore market confidence

Currently, the Trump Coin market is composed mainly of retail investors holding small positions, lacking major investors to drive price movements. At issuance, up to 80% of the supply was held by Trump-related entities CIC Digital and Fight Fight Fight, with these tokens expected to be continuously unlocked at about $500k per day until mid-2028.

At current price levels, the remaining internally unlocked tokens represent a potential supply pressure of over $2.5 billion. This unlock schedule was explicitly disclosed in the issuance terms, creating ongoing selling pressure during periods of declining buyer interest.

The team held multiple promotional events, such as a golf club dinner in May 2025 for the top 220 token holders, and a $100 million purchase plan promised by Tron founder Justin Sun. However, these rallies dissipated within weeks.

A crypto and business conference held at Mar-a-Lago on April 25, 2026, sparked political controversy, with Senator Elizabeth Warren and others demanding documents related to the President’s role in promoting the event. On-chain data shows that absorbing such a large potential supply requires a significant demand event.