President Donald Trump in July signed the GENIUS Act, the country’s first major standalone cryptocurrency legislation. Trump has embraced the crypto industry, where his family now has several business ventures.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images/AFP
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BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images/AFP
Even by Donald Trump’s well-established track record of making money off the presidency, he’s had a banner week.
On Monday, President Trump’s family earned some $5 billion — at least on paper — as their latest cryptocurrency venture launched. Now a “token” from World Liberty Financial, the crypto business co-founded last year by Trump and his sons, is trading publicly.
This launch highlights the extraordinary degree to which Trump and his family are using the Oval Office to personally profit, especially through his close ties to the crypto industry. The president reported income of more than $630 million last year, including $57 million from cryptocurrency sales, before launching a “meme coin” earlier this year. (He has also licensed his name to sell sneakers, watches, guitars, and Bibles.)
Now anyone can buy or sell this “$WLFI” token — giving those wishing to curry favor with the president another avenue to directly contribute to his personal finances.
“You used to have to join Mar-a-Lago[, Trump’s resort and private club]. This is much more fun. You don’t even have to get out of bed in the morning,” says Ross Delston, a lawyer and former banking regulator at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
“You can invest in this [cryptocurrency], and now he’s your friend,” he adds. “And that could be anybody — somebody who’s sketchy, or who’s been convicted of something, or acting on behalf of a [foreign] state actor. “
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren was even more blunt. “It’s corruption, plain and simple,” she wrote on X on Tuesday, linking to a Wall Street Journal story about the Trump family’s $5 billion on-paper windfall.
The White House has repeatedly dismissed such criticisms over Trump’s efforts to personally profit from the crypto industry.
“Neither the President nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told NPR in an emailed statement this week.
From calling crypto a “scam” to appointing pro-crypto financial cops
World Liberty’s public launch didn’t exactly set the crypto world on fire. Its tokens were priced at about 22 cents each by Wednesday afternoon, down from their high of 32 cents shortly after their debut.
And so far, the Trumps have limited ability to actually cash in their holdings: World Liberty Financial says that its “team,” including the Trumps, were barred from selling their own tokens when they started trading publicly.
But even without an immediate payday, the token’s debut creates more pathways for the Trump family to profit from the crypto industry that helped put him back in office.
Just a few years ago, Trump called crypto a scam. But now he’s embraced it. Last year he courted deep-pocketed crypto investors, by vowing to make the United States the crypto capital of the world. And once he won re-election, Trump started appointing crypto-friendly officials to his administration — including at the financial regulatory agencies that once heavily policed the crypto industry.
Under President Biden, the Securities and Exchange Commission in particular cracked down heavily on crypto companies, suing many for fraud and money laundering. That gave Trump an opportunity to court the vote of frustrated crypto investors, who poured money into the 2024 federal elections. Last year, Trump appointed Paul Atkins, a crypto supporter, to head the SEC.
At the same time, the crypto ventures that Trump and his family have started have put them in a position to profit from the more relaxed rules coming out of his administration.
Now there are few guardrails for how Trump is co-mingling his personal and presidential crypto interests. As Delston says: “What exists now is virtually nothing.”
