Trump's $1.4 billion haul makes him biggest US crypto moneymaker
Published in Business News
Donald Trump, who reversed his early skepticism of crypto to become one of the industry’s biggest boosters, reported more crypto-related income last year than any publicly traded U.S. digital-asset company earned.
The 927-page financial disclosure released Tuesday by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics showed Trump generated at least $1.4 billion from crypto ventures, including about $594 million from World Liberty Financial, which he and his sons co-founded, roughly $636 million tied to his memecoin business and nearly $197 million from an equity sale related to Stablecoin Holdco. Crypto was by far the largest source of income disclosed in the filing, which also detailed revenue from hotels, golf resorts and other businesses.
Nearly all of Trump’s crypto income came from one-time token and equity sales rather than recurring operating earnings. By contrast, Coinbase Global Inc., the most profitable U.S.-listed crypto platform, reported $1.26 billion in net income last year under public-company accounting standards. Trump’s disclosure is self-reported and follows different reporting rules.
The president on Wednesday downplayed the amount of money he made, saying he was already wealthy when elected president, and deflected questions from reporters about whether he was inappropriately profiting off the presidency.
The haul came as some firms lost money thanks to a brutal selloff in crypto markets sparked by the liquidation of some $19 billion in risky bets on Oct. 10. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, had reached a record of over $126,000 just days earlier, but today trades at less than half that.
As Bitcoin’s price plunged, miners redoubled their pivots to AI while their investment outlays led to losses. Digital-asset exchanges were hit by a slowdown in trading activity. Michael Saylor’s Strategy Inc., which operates as effectively a pure-play Bitcoin hoarder rather than a traditional operating company, recorded a $3.8 billion loss after the price of the world’s largest cryptocurrency plunged.
Trump, who began advocating for the industry on the campaign trail in 2024, has helped push through key regulatory wins during his second term in office, including new legislation for stablecoin issuers. He has also appointed rule-makers seen as friendly to the industry.
Under Trump, the Securities and Exchange Commission, which brought a wave of enforcement actions against the sector under Joe Biden, has scrapped legal proceedings against major digital-asset exchanges.
Trump has also pardoned crypto executives including Changpeng Zhao, co-founder of the world’s largest exchange Binance, who had earlier pleaded guilty to anti-money laundering and U.S. sanctions violations.
The White House consistently said Trump is not involved in managing the family’s crypto ventures and denied conflicts of interest.
“There’s no question Trump has been positive for crypto sentiment,” said Vincent Liu, chief investment officer at Kronos Research, who last year attended an exclusive dinner with the president for top holders of his memecoin.
The cryptocurrencies launched by the two main ventures from which Trump has profited, World Liberty and his memecoin, have fared poorly since debuting last year. The memecoin has fallen more than 95%, while the World Liberty token is down 75%, according to CoinGecko data.
While the $1.4 billion in earnings tops anything recorded in the U.S., there are more lucrative crypto businesses operating offshore. Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, reported more than $10 billion in profit last year, though the figure hasn’t been signed off by an auditor.
(With assistance from Dave Liedtka, Bill Allison and Gregory Korte.)
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