The Trump family is going all in on crypto projects, from Bitcoin mining to Stablecoins
US President Donald Trump and his family have taken a interest in just about every corner of the crypto industry.
There are non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and digital collectibles; a decentralised finance project; a proposed stablecoin; an effort at Bitcoin mining; and a pair of memecoins, one for the president and one for First Lady Melania Trump.
Taken together, the various projects are approaching US$1 billion in paper gains even after accounting for the latest round of trade war-induced market gyrations, according to Bloomberg calculations based on publicly available data.
Mr Donald Trump is already the richest person to have ever become US president, and his non-crypto holdings include significant investments in real estate. After his first election in 2016, his lawyers created a trust to handle his business affairs. That was managed by his two eldest sons and by Mr Allen Weisselberg, the longtime chief financial officer of Mr Trump’s real estate company.
His second son, Mr Eric Trump, has emphasised that “there are no conflicts” related to the family’s crypto investments.
“I don’t work with the White House,” Mr Eric Trump said during a Bloomberg TV interview in April. “We’ve believed in crypto for a long time.”
The president’s own public conversion to crypto is still relatively new. Mr Trump called Bitcoin a “scam” as recently as 2021, telling Fox Business at the time that he did not like the token “because it’s another currency competing against the dollar” and that it should be regulated “very, very high”.
His relationship with the digital asset industry has evolved significantly since then. As a candidate, he courted and benefited from significant contributions to his re-election campaign from crypto executives and advocates.
In his second term, Mr Trump has signed executive orders in support of his promise to make the US the crypto capital of the planet, installed Mr David Sacks and Mr Bo Hines to represent the interests of the industry, and continued to tout his memecoin with posts on Truth Social.
“Trump and his family seem eager to establish a broad foothold in the sector prior to further regulatory actions that are likely to boost crypto-asset valuations,” said Eswar Prasad, professor of trade policy at Cornell University.
Here is how the Trump crypto portfolio has evolved.
Non-fungible Tokens: December 2022
Mr Trump became a crypto convert after falling in love with his own digital collectibles, known as non-fungible tokens.
Mr Bill Zanker, a friend of Mr Trump’s and the founder of adult-education company The Learning Annex, initially pitched him the idea. Since then, the Trump Trading Cards NFTs, which show him in a variety of poses and outfits (sometimes dressed as a superhero), have been spread out over four collections.
The president last year hosted dinners for fans who purchased his NFTs, which, according to financial disclosures, have brought in millions of dollars.
Decentralised Finance: September 2024
The Trump family announced its crypto project World Liberty Financial ahead of the US election. Since its inception, the project has been buying up millions of dollars worth of other cryptocurrencies, including Ether and Tron, though has yet to offer promised DeFi services like lending crypto without any intermediaries.
A company affiliated with Mr Trump receives 75 per cent of net revenue as a fee, including the proceeds of token sales, according to offering documents. The Trump family owns 60 per cent of the equity share of the World Liberty through their company DT Marks DeFi LLC.
The company has raised US$550 million in token sales after completing a second round last month.
Mr Zach Witkoff, one of World Liberty’s co-founders, is the son of Mr Steve Witkoff, who helped connect the president’s family to other World Liberty Financial’s participants. Since the platform’s token sale in October, observers have raised questions about its potential conflicts of interest for the Trump family, given the administration’s sway over regulations.
Mr Trump’s three sons, Donald Jr, Eric and Barron, are all listed as “Web3 Advisers” to World Liberty Financial. The family actively promotes the project through social media and public appearances.
Memecoins: January 2025
The day before Mr Trump’s inauguration, he and his wife, Melania, launched their own memecoins, a highly speculative corner of crypto in which the asset does not have much intrinsic value. After an initial surge, which likely generated more than US$11.4 million in fees for entities linked to the president in January alone, prices have tanked.
The foray was met with mixed reaction from the crypto industry, as many believed it hurt the push to appear more legitimate. Two Trump-linked entities – CIC Digital and Fight Fight Fight LLC – own 80 per cent of the supply, a holding that will be unlocked over three years.
ETFs: February 2025
Trump Media & Technology Group Corp said in early February that it had applied to trademark brands for investment products with themes that track Mr Trump’s priorities, including a “Truth.Fi Bitcoin Plus ETF”.
It has said it would work with Crypto.com to launch the ETF. The month before Mr Trump’s election win, the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a notice that it intended to sue Crypto.com for operating an unregistered securities exchange. It closed its probe in March, according to the company.
Stablecoin: March 25
World Liberty Financial announced plans to launch its own dollar-tracking stablecoin called USD1, which will be initially minted on the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain blockchains. The token will be backed one-to-one by short-term US Treasuries, dollar deposits and other cash equivalents, according to World Liberty.
The move came just ahead of landmark stablecoin legislation that advanced through the House Financial Services Committee, with crypto companies pitching stablecoins as a way to make global financial transactions cheaper and faster.
Bitcoin Mining: March 31
The Trump family said it plans to launch a Bitcoin mining-focused venture with Hut 8 Corp. Bitcoin miners were early supporters of Mr Trump’s re-election campaign. In June 2024, then-candidate Trump hosted several mining executives at Mar-a-Lago, telling them he would be an advocate for them in the White House.
The Bitcoin mining sector in the US has morphed into a multi-billion dollar industry.
“Investing in crypto is no longer as simple as holding Bitcoin,” said Campbell Harvey, a professor of finance at Duke University. “There are many different crypto segments. Trump has a presence in lending, a future stablecoin, other cryptoassets, and now a mining operation.” BLOOMBERG
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