Just over nine months ago, Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, becoming the first “crypto bro” to sit in the Oval Office. He had been president before, but during his first term he considered cryptocurrencies to be unbacked assets with no real value, even calling them a “scam.”
Everything has changed, however, thanks to the president’s growing romance with Silicon Valley and the influx of industry money at his door. The crypto world is now a priority for the White House. A bitcoin reserve and other digital assets, new legislation, laxer oversight… all of this has fueled steep price rises and created new business opportunities, including for the Trump family: the president’s sons, Eric and Donald Jr., have jumped fully into this market, investing through their companies and forming alliances with key players in the ecosystem.
Eric Trump’s reputation as a new crypto bro solidified after the U.S. elections. In March, he joined the board of advisors at Metaplanet, a Japanese strategy firm and the seventh-largest holder of bitcoin globally, to boost the accumulation of the cryptocurrency.
He also owns a stake in American Bitcoin, a crypto-mining company he co-founded in March, where he serves as Chief Strategy Officer. The company recently merged with Gryphon Digital Mining, and after this move it will join the Nasdaq, while also eyeing publicly traded firms in Japan with the same goal: acquiring them to boost its bitcoin holdings.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr., who also participates in American Bitcoin, has accelerated his exposure to the crypto industry through solo projects. Last month, he bought 350,000 shares of Thumzup, a company developing an app that allows users to earn money recommending products on Instagram. He did so even though the company recorded losses of $2.2 million and revenues of only $151 in the first three months of this year. The reason? The company seeks to build up bitcoin in its reserves, hoping it will appreciate in value.
The brothers’ leap into crypto has taken them to the Nasdaq trading floor. On August 13, they rang the opening bell after closing a deal with ALT5 Sigma, a biotech firm turned fintech, that has appointed Eric Trump to its board. The company plans to raise $1.5 billion to accumulate $WLFI tokens issued by the crypto firm World Liberty Financial (WLFI), which is backed by Donald Trump and the U.S. president’s family.
But these assets have dubious utility: they cannot yet be traded on any exchange, and the website notes that their sole purpose is “governance, and not for an investment […] All $WLFI will be non-transferable and locked indefinitely in a wallet or smart contract.” As part of the deal, WLFI contributed its tokens in exchange for 100 million shares of the company.
Although there are more doubts than certainties when it comes to World Liberty Financial, the company has served as the Trump brothers’ gateway into the ecosystem. The president launched the platform last September from his Mar-a-Lago mansion. At the time, the then-presidential candidate implied he knew little to nothing about the market, but that his children had studied it thoroughly. Its creation was an early signal of his intent to make the U.S. a crypto capital, with the Trump family personally betting on the market. The platform also issues the USD1 stablecoin tied to the dollar, an asset whose legislation was delayed in the U.S. due to potential conflicts of interest.
Even after the regulations passed, concerns remained, as the Trumps’ crypto ties grew closer. According to The Wall Street Journal, WLFI reportedly forged an alliance with PancakeSwap, a little-known trading platform operated by Binance, encouraging users to utilize the Trump-issued stablecoin through rewards or incentives. The higher the demand for the asset, the greater its circulation and the issuing company’s profits. The relationship between the shadow-run Trump company and the world’s largest crypto exchange has been tightening for months. Recently, the platform received an investment of $2 billion from Abu Dhabi investment giant MGX, paid not in dollars but in USD1.
The strong relationship extends beyond business: in late May, regulators withdrew a lawsuit against Binance, previously accused of operating illegally in the U.S. and diverting billions of customer funds. Its founder and former CEO, Changpeng Zhao, was sentenced in May 2024 to four months in prison for money laundering.
Eric and Donald Trump Jr. have other controversial business ties: Chinese businessman Justin Sun became WLFI’s largest investor and principal advisor after investing $75 million. His platform, Tron, which allows users to hide their identities, has become a preferred channel for cryptocurrency transfers linked to terrorist groups in the Middle East. In 2024, the U.S. Treasury seized Tron wallets and an account tied to a group that raised funds for Hamas following the 2023 attack on Israel.
In just a few months, the company has become a money-making machine and a fast track for the Trumps to enrich themselves. The Wall Street Journal estimates that it has generated around $4.5 billion since the elections. Over these months, it has been accumulating cryptocurrencies and has shown particular interest in Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocoin by market value. Eric Trump has openly expressed his interest in this asset: on July 25, when the Ether rally had already begun, he responded on X to a post suggesting it should trade above $8,000. “Agreed,” he tweeted.
This wasn’t the first time he expressed interest in Ethereum. In early February, shortly before Trump announced the creation of a digital asset reserve, he wrote on social media: “It’s a great time to add Ether [to your portfolio].” His endorsement went so far that, in response to that post, he added: “You can thank me later.” Half an hour later, the comment disappeared. Ethereum is now trading near its all-time highs.
The Trumps’ ties to the crypto world are growing stronger by the day, raising alarms over conflicts of interest and potential insider trading. The risk is that retail investors, drawn by the backing of the president and his family, could end up betting their savings despite the high risk. Meanwhile, the presidential family is fattening its fortune thanks to its influence in this booming market, where a single tweet from Eric Trump or a presidential announcement can move billions in the market.
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