According to a report from the Associated Press and other media outlets, a 2025 financial disclosure submitted by former U.S. President Donald Trump to the Office of Government Ethics reveals that his personal income from the cryptocurrency sector last year reached at least $1.224 billion, making it his most significant revenue source for the year.
Specifically, Trump earned over $588 million from the sale of the WLFI token issued by his family's cryptocurrency company, World Liberty Financial (WLF). An additional approximately $635 million came from sales of his personal meme coin, TRUMP.
Some industry analysts view Trump's deep involvement in the crypto industry and the substantial income derived from it as a landmark event signifying the sector's move into the mainstream and a microcosm of its increasingly visible risks. While the former President's direct participation in token issuance using his presidential status and family brand has temporarily boosted global attention on crypto assets and pressured regulators worldwide to address the industry, it has also accelerated speculative retail inflows and risk accumulation. This sets a problematic precedent for the sector and creates room for low-quality projects to thrive at the expense of legitimate ones.
Sources of the $1.2 Billion Revenue
The disclosed documents indicate that Trump's crypto income last year primarily stemmed from two projects: the WLFI governance token issued by WLF and the personal meme coin named after him, TRUMP.
While the nature of these two projects differs—one is a functional token for a DeFi platform, the other a purely sentiment-driven meme coin—they share a common thread: the Trump family holds absolute control over both and has extracted substantial profits from them.
The WLF project was co-founded by Trump with his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, in September 2024. Zach Witkoff, son of former U.S. Special Presidential Envoy Steven Witkoff, serves as its CEO. The project's website lists Trump as the "Chief Crypto Advocate," with his three sons designated as "Web3 Ambassadors."
The sales trajectory of the WLFI token was dramatic. In October 2024, the initial public sale launched at a unit price of $0.015. On the first day, only 766 million tokens were sold, raising $11 million, forcing the project team to lower its fundraising target from $300 million to $30 million.
The turning point came after Trump won the presidential election. The infusion of political narrative brought WLFI significant attention. By January 20, 2025, the first 20% of tokens (20 billion) had sold out at the $0.015 price, raising a cumulative $300 million. The team then capitalized on the momentum by offering an additional 5% (5 billion tokens) at an increased unit price of $0.05, which also sold out, netting $250 million. Thus, selling just 25% of the total token supply raised $550 million.
As of March 2025, information on the official website showed WLF's total fundraising had reached $550 million. The OGE disclosure documents reveal that in 2025, Trump profited approximately $515 million from WLFI token sales, with an additional roughly $65 million gained from selling equity in WLF's holding company. Meanwhile, the WLF-affiliated entity DT Marks DEFI LLC still holds 22.5 billion WLFI tokens, representing 22.5% of the total supply.
If WLFI at least carries the guise of a "legitimate" DeFi project, the profit path of the TRUMP meme coin is far more direct.
On January 17, 2025, just three days before Trump's presidential inauguration, "Fight Fight Fight LLC" launched the "OFFICIAL TRUMP" cryptocurrency. Public information indicates the TRUMP token has a total supply of 1 billion, with 80% controlled by the Trump family. The token incorporates a 0.3% transaction tax mechanism, where a fee from each trade is automatically diverted to a wallet controlled by the Trump family. The cleverness of this design lies in the fact that price fluctuations do not affect this revenue stream; the more frequent the trading, the greater the income. In April 2025 alone, this mechanism generated $43 million in revenue for the affiliated company CIC Digital.
The token's official website explicitly states it is "not intended to be an investment opportunity" but rather a means to "express support and participation in the ideals and beliefs embodied by the Trump symbol." Despite this disclaimer, Trump himself has repeatedly encouraged investors on social media to "join his very special Trump community."
Notably, the TRUMP token's price surged over tenfold to $74.27 within two days of its launch before plummeting to $7.50 by April 2025. According to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, approximately 810,000 wallets incurred cumulative losses exceeding $2 billion on TRUMP, averaging about $2,500 per person. Currently, the token's price has fallen to around $1.70.
Former First Lady Melania Trump also launched "Melania Tokens" in January 2025, but due to controversy surrounding their creation rationale and token unlock mechanism, their price similarly experienced extreme volatility.
In a previous interview, HashKey Group Chief Analyst Jeffrey Ding stated that the token issuance by the Trumps clearly carried strong economic motivations, fully leveraging the high liquidity and speculative nature of the cryptocurrency industry to directly convert personal influence into economic gain. Their political status and market actions have thrust cryptocurrency into the center of American political and social discourse.
On July 1, on-chain analyst Yu Jin speculated that, factoring in all aspects of the chain including issuance, marketing, and cashing out, Trump's net proceeds from cashing out the TRUMP meme coin likely exceeded $1 billion. Additionally, Trump personally holds approximately $100 million in cryptocurrencies: over $50 million in BTC, $5 million to $25 million in ETH, and $5 million to $25 million in USDC.
Regulator as Participant Raises Market Questions
When the regulator who sets the rules becomes an active participant in the game, the boundaries of propriety become blurred. The timing of this participation is particularly noteworthy.
The TRUMP token launched on January 17, 2025, three days before Trump's inauguration. On January 23, he signed Executive Order 14178, establishing an interagency working group to develop a digital asset regulatory framework. On March 6, he signed another order creating a federal "Strategic Bitcoin Reserve" and a "National Digital Asset Reserve." On July 18, Trump formally signed the GENIUS Act, establishing a regulatory framework for digital stablecoins for the first time. The pace of these policy moves closely coincided with the timing of his family's token activities—issuing industry-friendly policies while family projects raised massive funds from the market.
Even more striking was the sharp shift in regulatory stance. After Trump took office, SEC Chair Gary Gensler, known for his tough stance on crypto assets, resigned, and several lawsuits against crypto firms were dropped. After Tron founder Justin Sun invested $75 million in WLFI, the SEC suspended its lawsuit against him. In October 2025, Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (House Resolution 849 noted that before his pardon, Binance had "engaged in months of efforts to lobby the White House and presidential allies," and "representatives of the Trump family had discussed holding a financial stake in Binance").
The "Dinner with the President" contest pushed the controversy to a more overt level. On April 23, 2025, the TRUMP project announced that the top 220 token holders would get an opportunity to have dinner with Trump and discuss crypto policy. Following the announcement, TRUMP's price surged nearly 60% within 24 hours, and its market capitalization soared to $2.6 billion. Data shows the token's trading volume exceeded $1.3 million in the week after the dinner announcement, with its price rising from around $9 to near $14. Trump and his allies earned nearly $900,000 in transaction fees during this period. The top 25 holders were also initially promised a "White House VIP tour," an offer later removed amid controversy.
In an interview, Liu Yang, a partner at Beijing DeHeng Law Offices and a veteran participant in the crypto industry, stated that Trump's deep involvement in the crypto sector in 2025, earning over $1.2 billion, is a landmark event marking the industry's move toward the mainstream and the accelerated materialization of its risks.
"Objectively speaking, the short-term benefits are evident. A former President directly issuing tokens significantly increased the global exposure of crypto assets and forced regulators in various countries to acknowledge the industry's scale, pushing it from a grey area toward institutionalized regulation," Liu said. "However, in the long run, the disadvantages far outweigh the benefits. The biggest problem is that it establishes a market narrative of 'the President as the biggest market manipulator.'"
Liu believes this sets a very poor precedent for the industry, which will further exacerbate the crowding out of legitimate projects by low-quality ones, leaving the crypto market persistently dominated by speculative attributes. The future healthy development of the industry requires moving away from reliance on celebrity IP and hype, returning to technological implementation and support from real value. "Celebrity endorsement does not equal investment safety."
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