Breakout of Trump Crypto Plays
By Reuters | 03 Sep, 2025

Trump's massive liberalization of laws governing sale of crypto assets aligned perfectly with his family's new business focus.

The trading debut of $WLFI, a token linked to a cryptocurrency venture affiliated with U.S. President Donald Trump's sons, has cast a spotlight on the family's growing footprint in the space.

Cryptocurrency has become a recurring theme in the family's business empire, even as critics have flagged potential conflicts of interest given Trump's pledge to make the U.S. the "crypto capital of the planet." 

The White House, however, has denied any wrongdoing. All of Trump's multi-billion-dollar real estate, golf, media and other business interests are in a trust managed by his children.

The president is exempted from conflict of interest laws because he oversees too many areas to make enforcement practical, according to ethics experts. The system relies on a president's good-faith effort to separate his personal interests from the country's when he takes office.

Here is a rundown of the Trump family's main forays into the cryptocurrency industry:

TRUMP MEDIA 

Truth Social-owner Trump Media & Technology Group said in May it had raised $2.5 billion through a sale of shares and bonds to buy bitcoin, which CEO Devin Nunes said is the "apex instrument of financial freedom." 

The company plans to hold bitcoin as assets on its balance sheet, following a playbook long popularized by Michael Saylor's Strategy. 

About 41% of the stake in Trump Media is held in a trust under the name of Donald Jr., the president's son, according to a filing by the company. As of Friday's close, the stake was worth $2 billion.

TRUMP MEDIA GROUP CRO STRATEGY

Trump Media and Crypto.com have partnered with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) to launch a new venture called Trump Media Group CRO Strategy that will accumulate the crypto platform's native token, CRO, on its balance sheet.

Expected funding for the new company will comprise 6.3 billion CRO tokens, $200 million of cash, $220 million of warrants and a $5 billion equity line of credit from an affiliate of investment firm Yorkville, the SPAC's backer

Yorkville, Trump Media and Crypto.com will be the majority owners of the company, they said.

CRO's market value was $8.7 billion as of Wednesday, according to CoinGecko.

WORLD LIBERTY FINANCIAL

DT Marks DEFI LLC, an entity tied to the Trump family, holds nearly 38% of equity in the company that controls World Liberty Financial and is entitled to receive the lion's share of its revenues, according to the company's website. 

It also holds 22.5 billion $WLFI tokens, created by World Liberty, which have tumbled 21% since they started trading on Monday. The token was last valued at $6.7 billion on Wednesday, according to CoinGecko.

Under an agreement, the Trump-tied entity is entitled to 75% of the money raised from $WLFI sales, after covering agreed reserves and expenses.

The Trump family has made around $500 million from World Liberty since the platform was launched, according to Reuters calculations based on the company's terms and conditions, transactions traced by crypto analysis firms and publicly-disclosed deals.

World Liberty, which bills itself as a decentralized finance platform, lists the president's sons, Eric, Donald Jr. and Barron, as co-founders on its website.

It also issues a dollar-backed stablecoin, called USD1, which has a market value of $2.5 billion, according to data from CoinGecko.

MEMECOINS 

In the run-up to his inauguration in January, Trump and First Lady Melania Trump launched memecoins $TRUMP and $MELANIA, igniting a buying frenzy while also attracting sharp criticism. 

Memecoins, whose value is dictated by internet buzz or cultural relevance rather than technological utility or fundamentals, are highly volatile tokens that can offer outsized returns but also carry high risks.

The market values of $TRUMP and $MELANIA memecoins have since slumped to $1.7 billion and $144 million, respectively, according to CoinGecko, from $9 billion and $1.6 billion shortly after launch.

The top 220 holders of Trump's memecoin were invited to an exclusive dinner with the president at his private country club in May.

NFTs 

Trump entered the speculative NFT space in 2022, launching ventures, including collectible digital trading cards and branded merchandise.

In June this year, Trump listed $1.16 million in income from his NFTs, digital trading cards in his likeness, while First Lady Melania Trump earned around $216,700 from license fees on her own NFT collection.

AMERICAN BITCOIN

American Bitcoin, a new bitcoin miner backed by Trump's two sons is expected to list on the Nasdaq this month following an all-stock merger with Gryphon Digital Mining.

Eric, his brother Donald Trump Jr and crypto miner Hut 8 will own a combined 98% of the newly formed entity.

Launched by Hut 8 in March 2025, American Bitcoin has vowed to become "the world's largest, most efficient pure-play bitcoin miner."

CRYPTO ETFs

Trump Media has partnered with Yorkville on plans to launch at least three exchange-traded funds — one tracking bitcoin, another mixing bitcoin and ethereum and a third covering bitcoin, ether, Solana, XRP and CRO.

DOMINARI HOLDINGS 

Eric and Donald Jr. hold a nearly 6.3% stake each in crypto treasury vehicle Dominari Holdings, according to data from LSEG. As of Thursday's close, their shares were worth $6 million each.

(Reporting by Niket Nishant and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair)