Russians' losses on investments in memcoins may reach 100 billion

Russians hold about 2 trillion rubles in various cryptocurrencies, market participants told Izvestia, from 1 to 5% of them in such a rather risky segment as memcoins, Oleg Ogienko, an independent expert on blockchain, energy and digital currencies, believes.

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"TT, how do we get the amount from 20 to 100 billion rubles of Russians' funds invested in memcoins," says the expert.

And these same funds represent the potential losses of people from this type of investment, based on data from the ChainPlay resource. In August 2024, he published a study according to which, in the first 9 months of last year, 97% of memcoins went bankrupt, and 55% of them are associated with fraudulent schemes.

According to the DappRadar service, in the first three months of 2025 alone, the damage from cryptocurrency fraudulent withdrawal projects increased 67-fold: $6 billion versus $90 million in the same period last year. And the schemes of deception of depositors are mainly related to memcoins.

Investors also lose money on projects that are not fraudulent, but with sharp fluctuations in cryptocurrency exchange rates. For example, this was the case with the Trump and Melania memcoins, launched in January 2025 on the eve of the inauguration of US President Donald Trump.

"I think the Russians' losses from investments in Trump and Melania could be estimated at up to 1 billion rubles, although some of the most experienced crypto investors could make a profit," Oleg Ogienko believes.

Read more about the risks of investing in memcoins and fraudulent schemes in the Izvestia investigation:

Hype blinders: memcoins can deprive Russians of 100 billion rubles