The sitting U.S. president and his family are cashing in on digital assets tied to their political brand.
Since launching his re-election campaign in 2024, one that heavily focused on the adoption of cryptocurrency, President Donald Trump and his family have aggressively dived into crypto with a series of ventures that merge digital assets with their political brand.
Trump’s crypto ventures include several key projects: NFT sales from digital trading cards, the TRUMP and MELANIA memecoins, and the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform World Liberty Financial (WLFI). The USD1 stablecoin, issued by WLFI, currently has a market capitalization of $2.2 billion and ranks as the seventh-largest stablecoin by market cap, according to DeFiLlama.
While it’s hard to estimate exactly how much of the president’s $5.1 billion net worth is derived from crypto due to market volatility and multiple ventures, reports place the total in the eight- to nine-figure range. One recent Bloomberg report puts Trump’s crypto earnings at a minimum of $620 million. Meanwhile, a Forbes article estimates the Trump family’s crypto holdings have added about $1 billion to their wealth, with more expected.
Trump’s crypto earnings underscore how politics and digital assets are becoming closely linked. His success in this space also highlights new ways in which political figures can raise money and gain influence using cryptocurrencies, while also raising concerns about the ethics of using political power for personal gain.
“Trump didn’t just stumble into crypto, he launched a memecoin through his own companies, promoted it publicly, and made tens of millions doing it,” Kadan Stadelmann, CTO of Komodo Platform, told The Defiant. “Between that and his NFT drops, he’s one of the highest-earning political figures on-chain, which is wild to say about a sitting U.S. President. But he gets branding, fundraising and headlines, and that prints money.”
TRUMP and MELANIA Memecoins
At the center of the Trump crypto empire are the viral memecoins $TRUMP and $MELANIA. Launched the weekend before Trump’s inauguration earlier this year, they attracted massive attention from both traders and political supporters.
The TRUMP token, which exists natively on Solana and is also bridged to Ethereum, Base, and BNB Chain, surged in value ahead of the inauguration. This was mainly fueled by buyers using it as both a show of support and a high-risk investment. Analysts classify TRUMP and MELANIA as PolitiFi (political finance) coins – a type of token tied to political figures.
At the time of publishing, TRUMP is trading at $8.59, down 88% from its all-time high of $73.43 but still 99% above its lowest price of $4, according to CoinGecko. It currently has a market capitalization of $1.7 billion and a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $8.5 billion. CoinGecko currently ranks TRUMP as the fourth-largest memecoin by market cap, behind OGs such as Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and Pepe.
Forbes estimates the president may have earned about $315 million from TRUMP so far. The president and his partners were allocated 80% of the total supply of 1 billion tokens, with 200 million released initially for public distribution and liquidity. Since April, around 64 million more tokens (or 8% of the remaining supply) have been unlocked. These unlocked tokens are worth roughly $475 million after accounting for dilution and liquidity discounts, Forbes reported.
“Trump’s crypto playbook right now is like watching a ‘Big Brother’ contestant cash in on their short-term fame for a quick TV deal,” said Martin Lamming, the CMO at Avail. “The TRUMP memecoin flew in January amid massive hype, generating circa. $350 Million in the early days.”
Lamming explained that Trump has “masterfully leveraged his fame, policy sway, and financial muscle” to transform the crypto landscape into a “boutique retail outlet” for his brand.
“But, with the memcoin sector cooling, [Trump] is now turning to more long-term plays, with a new blue-chip ETF and fresh funding spikes,” he said. “It’s not just a portfolio pivot, it’s a blueprint for how on‑chain finance, politics, and celebrity status can be fused into a unified brand machine.”
Meanwhile, the MELANIA token, despite recording less volume, has followed a similar pattern of viral growth. It reached an all-time high of $13.05 and a low of $0.168. It now trades at $0.18, down over 98% from its peak. MELANIA currently has a market capitalization of approximately $117 million, with 640 million tokens in circulation, per CoinGecko.
“The visibility is great for crypto, no doubt about it. Millions are seeing wallets, token charts, and on-chain activity for the first time, but it’s a double-edged sword,” said Stadelmann. “When your first touchpoint with crypto is a celebrity memecoin that’s centralized and pure hype, it warps the whole point of the industry. Still, like it or not, he’s certainly helping bring crypto mainstream.”
World Liberty Financial
Another project tied closely to the Trump family is WLFI, a DeFi platform launched in 2024. WLFI positions itself as a “pro-America” alternative to centralized finance (CeFi), offering digital banking services, stablecoins, and tokenized investments linked to Trump-branded ventures.
While WLFI made waves when it was first announced as a DeFi platform, it was mostly recognized as being the issuer of USD1. The stablecoin gained significant traction after MGX, an Abu Dhabi-based technology investment firm, revealed plans to use the token for a $2 billion investment in Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange.
Binance’s CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, was recently linked to WLFI by The Wall Street Journal, which claimed that Zhao helped make introductions during the project’s international outreach. Zhao, who pleaded guilty in 2023 to U.S. money-laundering violations, is reportedly seeking a presidential pardon and a return to the U.S. market.
In response to the WSJ’s article, WLFI took to X (formerly Twitter) to state: “The suggestion that CZ acted as a ‘facilitator’ or ‘fixer’ for Zach Witkoff or WLFI is not only false, it’s laughable.”
Meanwhile, on July 11, a separate Bloomberg article claimed that Binance actually wrote the basic code for USD1, raising further conflict of interest concerns.
Bloomberg estimates that WLFI could be worth approximately $1.4 billion, based on the valuation of similar stablecoin companies like Circle. Although the outlet doesn’t count the stablecoin in Trump’s net worth because it’s “too speculative to value”, its $2.2 billion circulation likely earns about $100 million this year. Much of that money will go to the Trump family, according to the report.
Most recently, on Wednesday, July 16, holders of $WLFI, the native token of the project, voted to make them tradeable, opening the door to broader buying and selling that could raise the value of Trump’s stake.
NFTs
One of Trump’s earliest public crypto ventures comprised a series of NFT trading cards, launched in December 2022 under a licensing deal. The initial sale generated $4.4 million on the first day and was followed by several subsequent drops.
According to Forbes, Trump has earned at least $7 million from NFT sales, paid in both cash and crypto. After taxes, the outlet estimates his earnings from NFTs at around $4 million.
Since then, at least four NFT collections have been released by the president. One of the most recent drops, launched in the summer of 2024, included 50 new cards valued at $99 each. The cards depict Trump in different fictional scenarios.
ETFs
President Trump’s latest crypto move is a planned exchange-traded fund (ETF) tied to five major cryptocurrencies. On July 8, Trump Media & Technology Group, the company behind his Truth Social platform, filed with the SEC to launch the “Crypto Blue Chip ETF” later this year.
The fund would hold 70% Bitcoin, 15% Ethereum, 8% Solana, 5% XRP, and 2% Cronos, with Crypto.com as custodian. Trump Media had also announced a Bitcoin-Ethereum ETF earlier, but its status is unclear.
Crypto ETFs have gained traction since U.S. Bitcoin ETFs launched in 2024, offering investors crypto exposure without the need to buy tokens directly.
“Other public figures have dabbled in crypto, but none with this scale of potential financial success,” said Dan Hughes, founder and CTO at Radix. “Trump’s level of political power, celebrity status, and direct financial stake in crypto risks normalizing a crypto-economic model built on hype, speculation, and completely devoid of fundamentals. Markets have struggled this year; it’s pretty clear that the biggest winner from the ‘crypto presidency’ is Trump.”