Trump Bought Coinbase Stock in July and Sold Some of It on August 10. The Same Day, He Bought More Strategy. Here Is What Both Have Done Since.
Trump's ethics filings reveal he swapped Coinbase shares for more Strategy stock on a single August day, but the story behind the timing and which bet paid off raises some pointed questions about his trading instincts.
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Recent ethics filings from President Donald Trump show he sold shares of Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN | COIN Price Prediction) and bought shares of Strategy Inc. (NASDAQ:MSTR) 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.
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.
Trump’s August Filing Lists 517 Trades in Dollar Ranges
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. Below is a summary of Trump’s crypto-related trades alongside his more significant transactions.
| Security | Transaction | Date | Disclosed Band |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy Inc. stock | Purchase | August 10 | $1,001 to $15,000 |
| Coinbase stock | Sale | August 10 | $1,001 to $15,000 |
| SpaceX senior unsecured notes | Purchase | August 18 | $1,000,001 to $5,000,000 |
| Meta Platforms stock | Purchase | August 21 | $5,000,001 to $25,000,000 |
The bottom of the SpaceX band alone is more than 66 times the top of the Coinbase or Strategy band. Additionally, NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) 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.
Strategy Stock Has Surged 59% Since August 10, While Coinbase Rose 21%
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. The second-quarter earnings report, released on July 30, missed revenue expectations because trading volumes fell and crypto market volatility decreased.
Coinbase earns revenue from trading fees charged to both retail and institutional clients. It also earns income from a share of the interest on the reserves backing USDC (CRYPTO:USDC), a stablecoin issued by Circle Internet Group (NYSE:CRCL). Other revenue sources include staking rewards, Coinbase One subscriptions, the Base blockchain, and derivatives from its August 2025 acquisition of Deribit.
In contrast, Strategy’s share price increased from $97 on August 10 to $154 by October 9. Despite a 16.6% gain over the past month, Strategy’s stock is still down 51.7% over the past year.
The company holds Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) on its balance sheet and finances its purchases by selling stock, while maintaining a traditional enterprise software business. In short, Coinbase profits from trading activity, while the value of Strategy’s shares largely hinges on the price of the Bitcoin it holds.
Trump’s Filing Shows the Trades but Not Who Chose Them
Form 278-T outlines the trades but omits the reasoning behind them. It does not specify who made the decisions, whether Trump himself made the choices, or whether an external manager directed the trades.
Neither Coinbase nor Strategy announced any specific deals related to these trades. The companies did not disclose a settlement asset or require customers to use a particular token, and the filing mentions no specific token.
Does Trump’s Coinbase Stock Sale Impact Bitcoin or USDC?
No, the amount involved in the trades—between $1,001 and $15,000—is too small to influence the stock prices of Coinbase or Strategy, or the price of Bitcoin. USDC is designed to maintain a stable dollar value, so even significant news about Coinbase is unlikely to change its worth. For Strategy, the company’s stock price is influenced by fluctuations in Bitcoin’s value, not the other way around.
Since mid-August, Bitcoin has also seen price increases, but trading within this low dollar range is unlikely to affect broader market movements.
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Sam Daodu is a crypto analyst and the editor of 24/7 Wall St.'s Crypto Desk, where he covers Bitcoin, XRP, Ethereum, Solana and the altcoins investors search for most. His work focuses on price levels, spot ETF flows, on-chain data and the regulatory decisions that move crypto markets, written so a first-time buyer and a seasoned trader can both use it.
Sam has written about crypto professionally since 2019 and has published more than 2,000 articles. Before joining 24/7 Wall St., he wrote for crypto media outlets and Web3 companies and ghostwrote for crypto founders and token launches. His analysis is syndicated on Yahoo Finance, MSN and AOL and has been cited by other crypto news sites. He also founded MacLabs Marketing, a content and personal branding agency for crypto founders and executives.
When he isn't reading charts, Sam is usually at the gym or watching One Piece, a series he maintains has better tokenomics than most altcoins.
