Trump’s crypto grift spins into its own industry

Donald Trump uses his presidency to enlarge his private fortune in ways that none of his predecessors ever ventured to attempt.

In his first year back in office, Trump reported $2.2 billion in income, of which about $1.4 billion represented new revenues from cryptocurrency businesses, according to his annual Personal Financial Disclosure for 2025, released June 30.

Trump, as president last year, thus hauled in more money than he did in any previous year. One big chunk of the $1.4 billion was $635 million from a license agreement for his so-called $TRUMP digital “meme” coins, also called “crypto” coins or “tokens.”

$TRUMP coins surfaced three days before his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025. The following month, Trump’s Securities Exchange Commission — newly weakened at the president’s demand — announced that such tokens would no longer come under SEC oversight.

A few weeks after that, in May, Trump hosted a dinner for the top 220 $TRUMP holders at his private golf club in Northern Virginia, just outside of Washington.

While the president raked it in, one million buyers of the meme coin lost a total $3.81 billion, a private analytics firm revealed.

Trump has yet to specifically address having snared so much money from these losing investors.

LIKENED TO ‘WILD WEST’

Under the Biden administration, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler pursued the crypto sector with enforcement actions. Gensler said the business was like the “wild west” and warned that without strong federal oversight assuring integrity, crypto could prove disastrous for the financial system. Trump promised during his campaign to fire Gensler, who instead quit on Inauguration Day.

It’s now also revealed that Trump raked in $525 million from crypto token sales by World Liberty Financial, founded by the president and his sons Donald Jr. and Eric. Beyond token sales, other investment and sales income related to WLF reportedly totaled more than $350 million.

Coziness between the administration and the industry is apparent. WLF has an important business relationship with Binance, a global cryptocurrency exchange and blockchain ecosystem. A blockchain is a secure, shared digital ledger that stores information across a network of computers in a way that tech experts say cannot be tampered with. Transactions can be made opaque to regulators. In the lingo of the trade, Binance acts as WLF’s primary liquidity provider, code developer, and central market for WLF’s stablecoin called USD-1, because its value is pegged to the U.S. dollar.

Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s founder and former head, pleaded guilty in 2023 to violating money laundering laws. But Trump pardoned him in October 2025. Very suspiciously, the president told news media he didn’t know who Zhao was.

Last week, during an Oval Office appearance, Trump broadly denounced past enforcement actions against crypto shenanigans and bragged: “Every time I see a crypto guy where they dropped an investigation I said, ‘You’re lucky I’m president.’ ”

So it will take no deep probe to discover that Trump’s championing of crypto, and his family’s interest in it, undermine the impartiality of his government’s regulatory and enforcement role.

DISTURBING SUSPICIONS

The rise of World Liberty Financial also raises disturbing suspicions of foreign nationals buying favor with the White House. One Abu Dhabi-backed firm invested $2 billion in its stablecoin. Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, and his son Brandon, have been involved in developing WLF along with Mideast emissary Steve Witkoff and his sons.

Corruption is defined in the dictionary as “the dishonest, fraudulent, or illegal misuse of entrusted power for personal gain.” The question is how explicitly and specifically Trump’s actions meet the definition.

Even without counting Trump’s garish promotion of an industry from which he benefits bigly, no other president has cashed in even close to his other, non-crypto ventures, worth $800 million for 2025. That includes his golf courses, hotels, traditional real estate, lawsuits, branded merchandise, stock gains and licensing agreements.

But because of its unique, cutting-edge role, crypto puts up the biggest numbers for Trump’s rapid acquisition of wealth. And that’s where the massive controversial issues lie for the future.

Consumer advocates and traditional financial experts predict trouble and complex difficulties not for Trump but for the public, investors, and consumers under the new regime, with its radical preemption of enforcement against shady practices.

Of the many consumer groups that condemned the Trump crypto windfall, one organization, Public Citizen, stands out for its comment: “Donald Trump’s grift is degrading the presidency, ripping off consumers and investors, and driving dangerous policy that risks future financial crises.”

“The least that Congress can do in light of this disclosure is insist on language in cryptocurrency legislation prohibiting the president and other federal officeholders from trading or holding crypto assets while in office.”

The open question is how that will happen unless Congress and executive agencies stop passively obeying Trump’s demands. This scandal is about an unheard-of level of self-dealing by the government’s most powerful individual. There is litigation involving WLF, but a resolution cannot be expected quickly.

Perhaps only more crypto losers, like those who bought a Trump meme coin, will inspire future reforms.