According to a new report, President Trump’s investment in cryptocurrency has increased his family’s wealth by billions of dollars in the last six months, as his administration continues to loosen the federal government’s regulatory approach to the digital currency industry as a whole.
According to a new report from State Democracy Defenders Action, the president’s cryptocurrency holdings now account for nearly 40% of his net worth, or around $2.9 billion.
This increase is due in part to his release of the $TRUMP and $MELANIA meme coins, as well as a significant stake in World Liberty Financial, a crypto exchange affiliated with the Trump family that will launch in October 2024. State Democracy Defenders Action claims to be nonpartisan, but it is led by frequent President Trump critics, with an agenda focused on “the autocratic threat to our nation.”
The president’s net worth is expected to rise further, following World Liberty Financial’s announcement this week that an Abu Dhabi-backed firm will invest billions of dollars in the Trump family-affiliated cryptocurrency fund.
The Emirati firm, MGX, will invest $2 billion in a stablecoin product offered by World Liberty, according to a statement to CBS. The currency known as “USD1” will then be used to invest in Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges.
World Liberty has connections to the president and his sons. According to the fine print on the company’s website, an entity affiliated with Mr. Trump and his family members owns 60% of the company.
According to the company’s public reports, a Trump family entity also owns 22.5 billion $WLF tokens and receives an additional 75% in net revenue from future token purchases.
The specifics of the MGX transaction have not been disclosed, so it is unclear how much the Trump family stands to benefit from this transaction.
In a statement to CBS News, World Liberty stated that the transaction is the “single largest-ever investment in a crypto company” and sets a “historic precedent.” It did not respond to questions about the Trump family’s expected profit from the investment.
The White House responded to a request for comment by instructing CBS News to “report on something people actually care about.” A spokesperson provided links to various White House technology initiatives.
As the president’s cryptocurrency investments have increased, the Securities and Exchange Commission has paused investigations into a dozen crypto companies since his inauguration, according to a CBS News analysis.
“The bottom line is that he appears to be profiting from his public office,” said Virginia Canter, State Democracy Defenders’ chief counsel for ethics and anticorruption. Canter, who co-authored the new report, worked as senior ethics counsel for the Treasury Department during both Republican and Democratic administrations.
“In terms of prior presidents in the modern age, they’ve all divested their assets, or they’ve rolled them over into what we call blind trusts,” Canter told the crowd. “President Trump did not do that in his first term, and it seems as if in the second term he’s doubled down and he is all in (on) the crypto industry.”
The report is heavily based on previous media reports, including a Fortune magazine article that examined the Trump family’s financial disclosures and provided the president’s original net worth estimate.
Because crypto companies are not legally required to disclose who is buying and selling on their platforms to the public, little is known about who has invested in crypto products linked to the Trump family.
Canter claims that this makes it more difficult to identify potential conflicts of interest.
“In his first administration, we could see who was walking in and out of the Trump hotels,” she told me.
Trump hopes U.S. will be the “crypto capital of the world”
The president, who once referred to cryptocurrency as a “scam,” has since embraced it, stating that he hopes to make the United States the “crypto capital of the world.”
Since his inauguration, Mr. Trump has taken several steps to loosen the regulatory environment that many industry insiders say has crippled cryptocurrency businesses.
He has issued several executive orders to promote cryptocurrency, including one that encourages the growth of digital currencies and another that directs the Treasury Department to establish a strategic cryptocurrency reserve.
Mr. Trump has also used his office to pardon the three founders of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, who pleaded guilty in 2022 for failing to prevent money laundering on their platform, according to Reuters.
The value of Mr. Trump’s cryptocurrency assets has fluctuated in response to his policy decisions and social media posts.
According to the report, the value of $TRUMP increased 18.1% in early March following the president’s executive order promoting a strategic cryptocurrency reserve. A few weeks later, on March 23, the president wrote: “I Love $TRUMP- SO COOL!!” The Greatest of them all!!!!” on Truth Social, the meme coin’s price rose from $10.93 to $12.24.
Whether or not the $TRUMP coin appreciates in value, the president’s company earns trading fees when people buy or sell it. According to a Reuters analysis, the businesses behind the $TRUMP coin could have earned nearly $100 million in fees in less than two weeks of trading.
World Liberty Finance: The Trump family’s crypto exchange
Aside from meme coins, the Trump family’s most recent venture into cryptocurrency may be its most profitable.
In October, then-candidate Trump helped establish World Liberty Finance, a decentralized or “defi” cryptocurrency exchange. Its website, which prominently displays the president’s image, allows users to buy into the exchange with $WLFI tokens.
“Good news! The World Liberty Financial token is now available. Crypto is the future; let us embrace this incredible technology and lead the world’s digital economy. “Go to World Liberty Financial.com,” Mr. Trump wrote on X in October, prior to the presidential election.
The website claims that World Liberty was “inspired by Donald J. Trump,” and Mr. Trump is listed as the chief crypto advocate. His sons, Eric, Donald Jr., and Barron, are all listed as Web3 ambassadors.
Donald Trump Jr. promoted World Liberty Financial in March at the D.C. Blockchain Conference, where crypto industry insiders mingled with members of Congress and the administration.
“I’m just super excited about what this can mean for the future of banking and financial systems,” said Trump Jr., who participated in World Liberty’s panel remotely. Chase Herro, Zak Folkman, and Zach Witkoff, the founders, took the stage to promote World Liberty’s stablecoin offering.
“We want Republicans and Democrats, whether black, blue, brown, or white, to use our stable coin,” said Zach Witkoff, son of Steven Witkoff, the White House special envoy to the Middle East. “We think it democratizes finance.”
World Liberty claims to have raised more than $550 million from investors who purchased the $WLF governance token. The vast majority of these investors remain anonymous to the public. These $WLFI tokens are currently non-redeemable, which means that once purchased, users cannot exchange them.
World Liberty declined CBS’s multiple requests for an interview.
Justin Sun, the crypto billionaire famous for purchasing and eating a $6.2 million banana taped to a wall, is one of World Liberty’s few well-known investors.
Sun, who was under investigation for securities fraud during the Biden administration, stated in a post on X that he invested $30 million shortly after Mr. Trump’s election, claiming to be World Liberty’s “largest investor.”
Sun stated in a post on X that he invested an additional $45 million just days before Mr. Trump’s inauguration. A few weeks later, the Securities and Exchange Commission reversed course and requested that the judge grant a stay in Sun’s case, citing “public interest.” The pause in Sun’s case was part of the SEC’s larger push to dismiss cases against cryptocurrency companies.
A spokesperson for Sun and the SEC declined to comment.
Last month, Democrats on the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee wrote to the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency about the potential for conflict of interest as the Trump administration considers regulations for companies such as World Liberty Financial.
“President Trump’s involvement in this venture, as he strips financial regulators of their independence…presents an extraordinary conflict of interest that could create unprecedented risks to our financial system,” said the letter, signed by five Democrats, including Senators Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, and Chris Van Hollen.
According to World Liberty Financial, 85,000 investors have completed a standard Know Your Customer process to determine “participation eligibility,” and the company is arranging for a third-party accounting firm to audit its new venture into debt-backed stablecoins in the United States.
As president, Mr. Trump is not subject to the criminal conflict-of-interest statute. However, the Ethics in Government Act requires him to disclose all of his assets and income, including crypto assets. The president’s next financial disclosure report deadline is May 15.