Trump's latest financial disclosures arrive at a difficult time for the crypto industry
Trump reported more than $1 billion in crypto-related income last year.
Millions of crypto investors around the world are sitting on losses as a painful bear market erases trillions of dollars in paper profits.
President Donald Trump's latest financial disclosures, released Tuesday by the U.S. government, are rubbing salt in their wounds.
The annual disclosure revealed more than $1.4 billion in income from various crypto ventures, including more than $550 million from sales of crypto tokens by Trump's World Liberty Financial, a crypto company founded by Trump, his sons and other partners.
"World Liberty Financial is one of the most successful financial technology companies on the planet, launching products like USD1, which has rapidly become the second-largest GENIUS-compliant stablecoin. World Liberty's global community of supporters is comprised of many disparate groups across the ecosystem, including tens of thousands who early on purchased WLFI governance tokens at 1c and 5c, even as overall market conditions have evolved since the downturn in October 2025," said David Wachsman, spokesman for World Liberty Financial.
Some of Trump's crypto endeavors have saddled investors with big losses. Data from Chainalysis, a crypto analytics firm, showed that 764,000 crypto wallets holding Trump's memecoin $TRUMP have lost money. Meanwhile, a handful of investors who sold early cleaned up. The Trump coin price has fallen by more than 95% since its January 2025 debut, and was recently trading at $1.70, according to CoinMarketCap.
As headlines touting the president's billion-dollar windfall made the rounds on social media, they were greeted by an outpouring of reactions from commentators. Emotions ranged from anger to resigned humor.
"Imagine rug pulling your own base," said one Reddit user in a post on the r/CryptoCurrency subreddit. "This is a new low."
Some said small-time investors who purchased Trump's meme coin had nobody to blame but themselves for any losses.
"They willfully participated in his scams. They deserved to lose every penny," another user wrote.
"As President Trump said, he has a lot of assets because he was a massively successful businessman prior to becoming president, which was why he was elected to office in the first place," said White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly in response to a request for comment from MarketWatch.
"All of the president's assets are in held in fully discretionary accounts managed by independent third-party financial institutions. There are no conflicts of interest," she added.
Recent weakness in the world of crypto hasn't been limited to memecoins. Bitcoin, the pioneering cryptocurrency, is mired in a big drawdown, as are most of the other major coins. Since hitting a record high north of $126,000 in early October, bitcoin (BTCUSD) has erased more than half of its value. It was trading at around $61,000 on Thursday.
Industry blowback
Some industry insiders who spoke with MarketWatch said the revelation could damage the crypto industry's reputation.
Indeed, the controversy surrounding Trump's crypto ventures could amount to "a major blowback for the industry," said Louis LaValle, co-founder and chief executive of investment advisory firm Frontier Investments. "In my opinion, this is a great example where we've made very little, if any, forward motion on protecting the individual investor in this industry," he said.
LaValle acknowledged that the crypto industry has won important policy victories since Trump returned to the White House, including measures that could make it easier for banks, asset managers and stablecoin issuers to participate in digital-asset markets. However, those changes have done little to address a long-running concern: Whether everyday investors are adequately protected in a market still prone to hype, sharp losses and fraud.
Eroding confidence
Erik Smolinski, a crypto investor, said the revelations undermined his confidence in the president.
"When we have a population of people who view themselves as struggling to get by, and a president - or any political leadership - making millions, it completely erodes confidence," Smolinski told MarketWatch on Thursday.
"It would be like if I was leading a platoon of Marines but went to a hotel to sleep at night while they're out in a foxhole," he added. Smolinski is a full-time day trader, and U.S. Marine veteran, who has owned bitcoin for more than a decade.
Clarity Act in jeopardy
There is a chance that Trump's newly disclosed crypto windfall could make it even harder for congressional Republicans to pass the Clarity Act, a sweeping crypto market-structure bill that would set clearer federal rules for digital assets. It also aims to divide oversight between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The legislation, if passed, is expected to be a major win for the crypto industry, giving exchanges, token issuers and other digital-asset firms a more predictable regulatory framework after years of uncertainty and enforcement-driven oversight.
To be sure, the Clarity Act was already in jeopardy before this week. Trump recently refused to sign a bipartisan housing bill that his team helped negotiate, saying he would not sign any bill until Congress enacts the SAVE Act on elections. While many on Capitol Hill expect Trump would make an exception for the Clarity Act, Republican lawmakers don't find the uncertainty encouraging, according to analysts at TD Cowen.
Democrats want to bar government officials and their families, including the president, from owning crypto businesses. Trump has not indicated a willingness to compromise, signaling that Republicans would likely need to vote down a Democratic ethics amendment for the bill to pass.
"It is not clear to us the GOP has the votes," wrote TD Cowen's Jaret Seiberg.
Semafor reported on Thursday that Senate Democrats think Trump's massive windfall could strengthen their hand in negotiations. Either way, it is unclear whether the bill will make it to the president's desk before the House departs on July 24 for its August recess.
-Joseph Adinolfi -Frances Yue
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 02, 2026 18:12 ET (22:12 GMT)
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