Author: Jack Inabinet, Bankless Analyst
Translation: Jinse Finance xiaozou
Original Title: Tracking the Growing Crypto Empire of Trump
Just six months after the "King of Understanding" returns to the White House, this self-proclaimed "Crypto President" has been extremely busy. The latest reports show that the first family has earned over $600 million in cash through token sales and holds a crypto-related investment portfolio worth billions of dollars.
Today, we will delve into the most notable crypto layout of the Trump family and explore the far-reaching impacts of their strong push into cryptocurrencies.
1. Trump Digital Trading Cards
Trump's first foray into the cryptocurrency field - "Trump Digital Trading Cards" was launched on the Polygon PoS chain in December 2022.
The initial series included 45,000 digital cards priced at $99 each, which sold out within hours, creating over $4.4 million in initial sales. Subsequently, three additional subseries were added, with tens of thousands of unique digital cards issued in total.
Although promoted as digital collectibles for personal entertainment, not investment-related and unrelated to Trump's political campaign, cardholders can still enjoy multiple physical benefits: including a guaranteed invitation to dine with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, the actual fabric cut of the "KO" suit from the 2024 presidential debate, and free Trump sneakers.
The digital cards supported credit card and cryptocurrency purchases during the initial sale and could be traded on regular NFT marketplaces like OpenSea after release. All secondary market sales of Trump Digital Trading Cards are subject to a 10% royalty.
2. World Free Finance (WLFI)
World Free Finance is essentially a Trump-related investment DAO holding nearly $200 million worth of mainstream cryptocurrencies - from stablecoins to major coins like BTC and ETH, and various Altcoins (including TRX, ONDO, and MOVE).
Although initially promoted as a native crypto lending application similar to Aave, World Free Finance has made no substantial progress in deploying on-chain money markets, except for marking the "lending" button on its official website as "coming soon".
Unlike the TRUMP and MELANIA meme coins discussed later (which can be freely purchased), only qualified investors meeting SEC Regulation D and S exemption requirements (certified US investors and non-sanctioned international investors) can participate in WLFI investments.
While the World Free Finance governance layer recently voted to remove WLFI token transfer restrictions, it will continue KYC re-examination and compliance monitoring to ensure tokens do not flow to unauthorized buyers.
In March 2025, WLFI launched USD1, a US Treasury short-term reserve, BitGo-custodied USD-pegged stablecoin. As of writing, USD1 has a market cap of $2.2 billion, ranking seventh among stablecoins, just after MakerDAO/Sky's Dai.
In addition to holding 22.5 billion WLFI tokens, the Trump family owns 40% of the "WLF Holdings LLC" - the company developing World Free Finance that receives 75% of token sale revenue.
3. TRUMP/MELANIA Coins
These meme coins, modeled after the president and first lady, were launched in January 2025 shortly after Trump's inauguration. Although both have generally shown a unilateral downward price trend, the TRUMP token has repeatedly experienced periodic surges due to various announcements.
For example, the token price doubled when Trump announced inviting 220 TRUMP holders to a private dinner in late April; when Eric Trump revealed that World Free Finance would purchase a "large TRUMP position" for the Treasury in June, the price rose 10%.
Any user can purchase TRUMP and MELANIA coins through decentralized exchanges like Uniswap, and some centralized exchanges (including Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, and Robinhood) have already listed one or both token trading pairs.
4. Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT)
Founded by President Trump in 2021, the "Trump Media & Technology Group" is the owner and operator of the alternative tech social platform Truth Social, which was custom-developed based on the open-source social media framework Mastodon.
In March 2024, through a merger with the special purpose acquisition company Digital World Acquisition Corp under Shanghai ARC Capital, Trump's media company went public with the stock ticker "DJT".
In May 2025, Trump Media disclosed raising $2.5 billion from approximately 50 institutional investors to build a Bitcoin reserve library. In early June, the company submitted a shelf registration filing to the SEC, intending to issue an additional $12 billion in securities to fund subsequent Bitcoin acquisitions. If fully executed, this would make DJT the second-largest crypto asset holding company globally, only behind Strategy.
To support the transformation into a crypto asset holding company, Trump Media has partnered with Crypto.com to launch a series of "Made in America" concept security and crypto ETFs through the upcoming Truth.Fi financial services platform. As of writing, DJT has submitted applications for three crypto ETFs to the SEC.
Additionally, on July 9th, Truth Social announced that users subscribing to the $9.99/month "Trump Media Patriot Package" will receive functional tokens stored in the "Truth Digital Wallet", which can be used to purchase goods and services within the "Truth ecosystem".
5. American Bitcoin
American Bitcoin is a joint venture subsidiary of Bitcoin mining company Hut 8 and "American Data Center", focusing on "industrial Bitcoin mining and strategic Bitcoin reserve development". Established in March 2025, under the merger agreement, Hut 8 will transfer most of its ASIC mining machines to the American Data Center company supported by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, in exchange for 80% equity in the joint venture.
Eric Trump was appointed Chief Strategy Officer. According to the company website, American Bitcoin has unique advantages: leveraging Hut 8's mature mining operations while combining Eric Trump's "business acumen, capital market expertise, and firm commitment to advancing decentralized financial systems".
On June 10th, American Bitcoin disclosed purchasing $23 million worth of Bitcoin. The company subsequently announced raising $220 million through private placement to fund future Bitcoin acquisitions and more mining equipment.
6. Metaplanet (formerly Red Planet)
Metaplanet is a Japanese hotel holding group that became insolvent due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. After being acquired by Evolution Financial Group, it avoided delisting from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
In June 2024, Metaplanet took the first step towards transforming into an "top Asian crypto asset reserve platform" by raising 1 billion yen to purchase Bitcoin through a bond issuance to Evolution Financial Group. Subsequently, the company accumulated an 8,888 Bitcoin reserve through a combination of stock and bond issuances (funds entirely from Evolution Financial Group's "Evo Fund").
Japanese securities brokerage accounts currently do not provide spot Bitcoin custody services. Unlike similar crypto reserve companies, Metaplanet frequently sells cash-secured put options to acquire Bitcoin, a strategy that earns option premiums while allowing token purchases at prices lower than the option issuance price.
On March 20, 2025, Eric Trump, the second son of Donald Trump, was appointed as the first member of Metaplanet's "Strategic Advisory Committee". Bitcoin evangelist and Nakamoto Capital founder David Bailey subsequently joined the team in April.
7、TRON Inc.
Toy manufacturer SRM Entertainment announced on June 16 that it would raise up to $210 million from "private investors" to acquire TRX. By the end of that month, the company had completed its first TRX purchase worth $100 million and deployed these tokens on the JustLend platform to obtain approximately 10% annual yield.
The transaction made Justin Sun, the founder of TRON, an advisor to SRM Entertainment, and the company will be renamed "TRON Inc.". Additionally, SRM plans to implement a dividend policy after successfully implementing the TRX staking plan.
Although Little Donald Trump and Eric Trump serve on the advisory committee of Dominari Securities, the exclusive placement agent for this fundraising, Eric Trump refuted the Financial Times' earlier report that he would hold a public position at SRM Entertainment. While specific terms were not disclosed, Dominari Securities likely received stock compensation for its placement agent role.
Conclusion:
Trump's deep connection with the crypto world has sparked widespread questioning about whether he abused presidential power for personal gain. Several heavyweight Democratic lawmakers have launched sharp criticisms of his crypto business empire.
For example, Senator Elizabeth Warren condemned the president for "enriching his family through crypto businesses while undermining government market regulation", directly pointing out that his crypto asset portfolio constitutes a significant conflict of interest that could lead to disastrous consequences.
White House officials have denied all allegations of impropriety. Trump family members interpret their business participation as part of a "financial democratization mission" aimed at making the United States the global crypto capital.
Although Trump did profit from his presidential term, supporters believe that personal gains are a negligible price compared to his pro-crypto policies that reversed industry suppression during the Biden era.
