The Trump Name Isn’t What It Used to Be on Wall Street - And That’s a Bullish Signal for Crypto

Wall Street's fading romance with political branding opens the door for decentralized alternatives.

Brand Power Fades, Code Endures

Traditional finance loves a name it can slap on a prospectus. But when political volatility meets quarterly earnings calls, even the gilded names tarnish. The market's cooling sentiment toward politically-linked assets reveals a deeper truth: legacy systems built on centralized trust are showing their age.

Decentralization Bypasses the Personality Cult

Blockchain doesn't care about your brand. Smart contracts execute based on code, not charisma. This shift from human reputation to algorithmic certainty is pulling capital away from old-world, personality-driven investments. Why bet on a name when you can invest in a protocol?

The Institutional Pivot is Already Underway

Watch the flow. As traditional hedges lose their luster, institutional portfolios are rebalancing. Allocations are quietly shifting toward asset classes uncorrelated with political cycles and CEO headlines. Digital assets, with their global, 24/7 markets, are capturing that flight to neutrality.

A Cynical Take on TradFi's Dilemma

It's the oldest story in finance: chasing yesterday's winner. Wall Street finally figured out that political capital has a shorter half-life than a meme coin pump. Now they're left scrambling for assets that can't be undone by a tweet.

The infrastructure being built now—Layer 2s, institutional-grade custody, regulatory clarity—isn't reliant on any single name. It creates a system where value accrues to the network, not the figurehead. That's a structural shift more permanent than any political era. The smart money isn't looking for the next big name; it's betting on the system that makes names irrelevant.

Key Takeaways

• Investments directly linked to President Donald Trump and his family have declined precipitously in recent months after soaring in the wake of his reelection.
• The weakness has been most pronounced in the Trump family's various crypto ventures, with meme coins, tokens, and shares of bitcoin mining operations all slumping this year.

It’s been a troubling couple of months for investors—including the first family.

Assets linked to President Donald Trump and his family have underperformed the broader market in recent months. The weakness has been most pronounced in crypto markets, where affiliation with the Trump family has at other times sent asset prices skyrocketing. 

Shares of Eric Trump’s American Bitcoin (ABTC), formed through a merger with an existing bitcoin miner, plummeted as much as 50% in early trading on Tuesday and finished the session down 39%. American Bitcoin on Tuesday closed at its lowest price since Trump’s involvement was announced in May and finished Wednesday about 75% of below its September closingb high.

Meanwhile, a widespread crypto rally pushed bitcoin back above $93,000 and lifted shares of miners and Bitcoin treasury companies like Strategy (MSTR)—the latter which rose nearly 4% yesterday.

Why This Is Important

Since President Trump's reelection last November, an affiliation with him or his family has at times sent asset prices soaring. In recent months, the premium investors are willing to pay for the TRUMP name has largely evaporated, with the family's crypto ventures being particularly hard hit.

World Liberty Financial (WLFIUSD), the native token of the Trump-backed crypto enterprise of the same name, has lost about 65% of its value since hitting a record high on its first trading day in September. The $TRUMP and $MELANIA meme coins have both lost about nine-tenths of their value from their all-time highs on Jan. 19, the day before Trump’s second inauguration. 

President Trump returned to the WHITE House promising to make the U.S. the "crypto capital of the world." Shortly after taking office, Trump formed a digital asset working group, established a national strategic Bitcoin reserve, and supported stablecoin legislation passed over the summer.

Trump and Congress's fondness for the crypto industry boosted digital assets. Cryptocurrencies soared in the wake of the 2024 election and, barring weakness during March and April's tariff-driven rout, continued to ride high for most of the year. Bitcoin hit a record high above $125,000 in early October.

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The Optimism that propelled risk assets to record highs, however, waned in recent weeks month amid macroeconomic uncertainty and concerns about an AI bubble. Still, some of the most aggressive profit-taking of late has been in corners of the market that soared on their association with the Trump family.

Most of the weakness in the Trump family portfolio is in its crypto-related ventures, but even more conventional assets are suffering. Shares of Trump Media & Technology (DJT), the parent company of Truth Social, have lost some two-thirds of their value since the start of the year. Last month, shares hit their lowest level since they began trading in late 2021, when Trump was effectively in political exile.

The S&P 500, on the other hand, has rebounded from a weekslong pullback. It finished Wednesday NEAR a record high.