2025, Trump's Year of Wealth Accumulation
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2025, Trump's Year of Wealth Accumulation
The wealth accumulation of America's first family is unprecedented in U.S. history.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy: John Cassidy
Translation: Saoirse, Foresight News
As the anniversary of Donald Trump’s return to the White House approaches, keeping up with his family's money-making ventures has become a daunting task. It seems a new deal or revelation surfaces every week. Since the Trump family and their associated businesses are mostly private, we lack full visibility into their finances. But by tracking corporate announcements, official documents, and in-depth media reports, a clear picture emerges: the scale of wealth accumulation by America’s first family is unprecedented in U.S. history. While other presidential relatives—including Donald Nixon, Billy Carter, and Hunter Biden—have previously engaged in questionable business dealings, the current term of the “Trump Organization” is unparalleled in terms of financial magnitude, geographic reach, and direct linkage to presidential actions—particularly Trump’s push to make America the “crypto capital of the world.”
Early Moves
The timeline begins in September 2024, two months before the presidential election. At that time, Trump announced his family would join forces with longtime friend and real estate developer Steve Witkoff, along with two relatively unknown internet entrepreneurs, Zachary Fackelman and Chase Hensel, to launch a new cryptocurrency company—World Liberty Financial—with his three sons, Eric, Don Jr., and Barron, all involved. Trump posted on social media: "Cryptocurrency is something we have to do, whether I like it or not, I have to move forward." By October, he had clearly overcome any hesitation about promoting potentially dubious digital assets to his supporters. In promotional copy for the World Liberty Financial token sale, he declared: "This is your chance to help shape the future of finance."
According to Reuters, for every dollar raised through the token sale, the Trump family receives 70 cents. Cryptocurrency media reported weak initial demand for the token, but it attracted one major investor: Justin Sun, Chinese-Canadian billionaire and founder of the Tron cryptocurrency platform, who invested $30 million. At the time, the U.S. SEC was suing Sun and his companies over fraud and other violations, which Sun denied. In a tweet announcing the investment, Sun wrote: "Tron is committed to making America great again and leading innovation. Let’s go!"
After winning the election, Trump continued his first-term approach: refusing to divest from his businesses, instead placing them into a revocable trust. Although the trust is managed by his sons Eric and Don Jr., Trump remains the de facto owner of the Trump Organization. The potential conflict of interest is obvious: if the re-elected president enacts policies or takes actions that benefit his family businesses, he and his family stand to gain financially.
Following the election, Don Jr. expanded his business footprint further by joining the conservative venture capital fund “1789,” founded by conservative financiers Omid Malek and Charles Baskett, along with Rebecca Mercer, hedge fund heiress and prominent conservative donor. According to the New York Post, “1789” has raised substantial funds from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds. Early investments focused on conservative media (including Tucker Carlson’s company), but by the time Don Jr. joined, the fund had broadened into consumer goods, defense, and technology sectors.
On January 17, 2025—three days before Trump’s second inauguration—he re-entered the crypto space by launching a new meme coin: MELANIA. Unlike World Liberty Financial tokens, which purportedly grant governance rights, both TRUMP and MELANIA are purely meme coins. TRUMP is now the world’s most popular digital meme coin—and this is just the beginning.
Massive Profiteering
After Trump returned to the White House, global actors rushed to build goodwill, triggering a cascade of developments—many involving cryptocurrency, foreign capital, or both. One of his earliest executive actions was ordering federal agencies to review regulations affecting the digital asset industry and propose ways to “repeal or revise” them. In February, the newly led SEC asked a court to pause its lawsuit against Justin Sun—by then, Sun had increased his stake in World Liberty Financial to $75 million.
In March, Trump hosted a cryptocurrency summit at the White House—organized by David Sacks, the so-called “crypto czar” and Silicon Valley venture capitalist—and announced plans to establish a U.S. “strategic Bitcoin reserve.” Later that month, Eric and Don Jr. merged their recently formed company with Canadian Bitcoin mining firm Hut 8 to create American Bitcoin. According to the Wall Street Journal, the new company aims to become the world’s largest Bitcoin miner and build its own Bitcoin reserves.
That spring, the Trump brothers also expanded operations abroad, particularly across the Persian Gulf. In April, Saudi-backed real estate developer Dar Global announced plans to open a Trump hotel in Dubai and build a Trump golf resort in neighboring Qatar—the company having already partnered with the Trump family on multiple branded projects in the Middle East, with Eric Trump personally attending the Gulf region launch event.
Domestically, Don Jr. attended the launch of another business venture: the high-end Washington club Executive Branch. Membership reportedly costs $500,000. News reports indicate Don Jr. is one of the club’s owners, alongside his “1789” fund partners Malek and Baskett, and Steve Witkoff’s two sons, Zack and Alex (both co-founders of World Liberty Financial). CNBC reported that attendees at the club’s launch included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Attorney General Pam Bondi, SEC Chair Paul Atkins, and FCC Chair Brendan Carr.
Cryptocurrency and attracting foreign investors remain central to the Trump family’s profit strategy. A Reuters deep-dive in October on their “global crypto ATM” revealed that in May, Eric Trump promoted World Liberty Financial to potential investors at a crypto conference in Dubai, including Guren Bobby Zhou, a Chinese-British businessman arrested in the UK on suspected money laundering charges—Zhou denies all allegations and has not been convicted. Reuters also found that an Emirati company linked to Zhou later purchased $100 million worth of WLFI tokens. Clearly, such foreign investments are not isolated: Reuters analysis shows over two-thirds of WLFI purchases came from digital wallets likely tied to overseas buyers.
Trump has also profited from official “gifts.” The U.S. Constitution explicitly prohibits federal officials, including the president, from accepting gifts from foreign governments without congressional approval. But in February, after repeatedly complaining about delays in building the new “Air Force One,” Trump visited Palm Beach International Airport to inspect a luxury Boeing 747 owned by the Qatari government. In May, shortly before departing on visits to Qatar, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, Trump announced on social media that the Pentagon would accept the Qatari royal family’s Boeing 747 as a “free gift” to replace the current Air Force One. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated: "Accepting gifts from foreign governments fully complies with all applicable laws, and the Trump administration is committed to complete transparency."
Another transaction benefiting the Trump family from a Gulf state received less attention: MGX, an investment fund controlled by the UAE government, invested $2 billion in Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, using World Liberty Financial’s newly issued stablecoin. Stablecoins are marketed as safer cryptocurrencies, backed by reserves of assets like the U.S. dollar, providing a price-stable medium for crypto transactions.
The MGX-Binance deal is highly unusual. Last year, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the Chinese-Canadian crypto billionaire and founder of Binance, pleaded guilty to failing to implement anti-money laundering controls at his exchange and served four months in a U.S. federal prison. In March this year, the Wall Street Journal reported that Zhao was seeking a presidential pardon. That same month, World Liberty Financial announced it would issue its own stablecoin, USD1—and the MGX-Binance transaction used this untested new currency, dramatically altering its market status. The Wall Street Journal noted: "The deal caused the cryptocurrency’s circulation to surge fifteenfold overnight, instantly making it one of the world’s largest stablecoins." Meanwhile, World Liberty Financial received $2 billion into its accounts—funds that can be invested in assets like U.S. Treasuries. Bloomberg estimates this could generate $80 million annually in profits, all flowing directly into the Trump family business.
Why would Binance and MGX choose USD1, a stablecoin barely tested in the market? MGX told Forbes that the new stablecoin was selected because it is “managed by independent U.S. custodians with reserves held in externally audited escrow accounts.” But outside observers lean toward a more pragmatic explanation: Zhao sought a pardon, while the UAE sought to curry favor with a U.S. administration capable of granting valuable policy concessions. As the New York Times detailed in its analysis of the deal, just two weeks after its completion, the White House allowed the UAE to import hundreds of thousands of advanced computer chips previously restricted under U.S. export controls.
Summer is typically a slow season for business, but not this year for the Trump family. In July, Congress passed the GENIUS Act under government pressure, establishing a regulatory framework for stablecoins—though some critics remain concerned about risks of integrating crypto into mainstream finance. That same month, Trump Media & Technology Group announced it had purchased approximately $2 billion worth of Bitcoin and related securities, following Michael Saylor’s Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) model, transforming from a social media company into a “Bitcoin treasury” firm. After the announcement, the company’s stock rose—having sharply declined since the start of the year. In August, the Trump family executed a financial maneuver with World Liberty Financial: investing in a small public company, which then issued $750 million in shares to buy WLFI tokens. A Wall Street Journal article noted: "Circular transactions where buyer and seller are effectively the same entity, trading self-issued products, are more common in crypto than traditional finance." In early September, some WLFI tokens began trading on cryptocurrency exchanges; two days later, American Bitcoin, in which Eric and Don Jr. hold stakes, went public on Nasdaq and saw its share price immediately rise. Bloomberg reported these moves allowed the Trump family to “earn about $1.3 billion.”
In the fall, deals and controversies continued. In October, Trump pardoned Zhao, sparking public outcry, though he claimed not to know the crypto entrepreneur personally and added the pardon was granted “at the request of many honorable people.” In November, Democratic staff on the House Judiciary Committee released a report accusing Trump of “using his office to become a crypto billionaire, offering broad protection to fraudsters, scammers, and other cybercriminals—who in turn paid millions in ‘tribute’ to the president and his family.” In response, White House Press Secretary Leavitt stated: "The president and his family have never had, and will never have, conflicts of interest. The administration is fulfilling its promise to make America the crypto capital of the world through executive actions and sound policies like support for the GENIUS Act, driving innovation and economic opportunity."
Bottom Line
Estimates of the Trump family’s total earnings vary. Reuters calculated they earned about $800 million from cryptocurrency sales in the first half of this year; the Financial Times estimated their total haul exceeded $1 billion over the 12 months ending October 2025. Including non-crypto revenues—licensing deals, gifts, special media arrangements, legal settlements, etc.—the Center for American Progress, a think tank aligned with Democrats, estimated the family’s “total gains” since Trump’s re-election reached $1.8 billion. Over the longer term, my colleague David Kirkpatrick estimates Trump has earned $3.4 billion from business tied to his presidency since 2016.
It’s important to note these figures represent cash income only, excluding increases in the Trump family’s paper wealth—especially from holding equity in World Liberty Financial and other crypto ventures. After WLFI tokens began trading on exchanges in September, estimates placed the family’s crypto-related paper wealth at $5 billion or higher.
However, in recent months, nearly all cryptocurrency assets—including those tied to the Trump family—have seen sharp declines: the TRUMP meme coin has lost about 80% of its value, MELANIA has plummeted 98.5%; Trump Media & Technology Group’s stock (which is now essentially a Bitcoin acquisition vehicle) is down nearly 70% year-to-date and nearly 40% since its large-scale crypto purchases; World Liberty Financial is a private company without publicly traded stock, but its WLFI token has dropped over a third since early September; American Bitcoin, linked to Eric Trump, has fallen more than 75% over the same period.
For the Trump family and their business partners, this market crash is the painful consequence of an all-in crypto strategy. Their future prospects depend heavily on the performance of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Yet even after recent losses, the family’s digital asset paper value remains in the billions; and even if the crypto market vanished tomorrow, the cash they’ve already pocketed since Trump’s return to power would still be secure—with more potential gains ahead.
Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that the Pentagon’s Strategic Capital Office—a unit created by the Biden administration in 2022 to fund emerging technologies with national security applications—awarded a $620 million loan to Vulcan Earth, a rare earth startup linked to Don Jr. The company recently received investment from the “1789” fund, of which Don Jr. is a partner. Don Jr.’s spokesperson told the FT he did not participate in the government transaction; Pentagon, Commerce Department officials, and Vulcan Earth’s CEO all confirmed the same.
Nonetheless, the loan has raised questions. The FT report noted: “This year, at least four companies in the ‘1789’ fund’s portfolio have won contracts from the Trump administration totaling $735 million.” Viewed one way, this may reflect a savvy business strategy—aligning investments with the Pentagon’s new priorities under the Trump administration. Viewed another, it looks like yet another round of profiteering by the Trump family. When public duties and private interests intertwine this deeply, the truth becomes hard to discern.
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