Donald J. Trump’s rise and return to the U.S. presidency is nothing short of cinematic; a real estate developer turned reality TV star turned president who crashed the party in Washington and left both allies and enemies scrambling. But beyond the red hats, rally chants, indictments, and relentless media cycles lies a far more strategic and revealing narrative: the intersection of political survival, financial reinvention, and crypto-fueled rebellion.
This article explores Donald Trump’s presidency, his crypto ventures, the critiques against them, and the deeper question at the heart of it all; should political figures, especially those under legal siege, be allowed to profit in industries like crypto? And is Trump’s journey really that different from others like Nancy Pelosi or Barack Obama when it comes to office and post office enrichment?
Trump broke every mold imaginable. From his reality TV stardom to launching an unprecedented campaign that shattered the polished norms of Washington D.C., his 2016 win marked a tectonic shift. Love him or hate him, Trump’s candidacy and presidency represented a rebellion of the masses against the elites—a system that many felt had long stopped working for them. Despite immense scrutiny, he came into office as one of the wealthiest presidents in U.S. history. In March 2016, Forbes estimated his net worth at $4.5 billion. Yet, by the end of his term, Forbes had revised that figure downward by $2 billion. Ironically, Trump became the first U.S. president in modern history to leave office poorer than he entered. Compare that to the financial fortunes of others:
Bill and Hillary Clinton: From $1.3 million to $120 million.
Barack Obama: From $1.3 million to $70 million.
Joe Biden: From near-zero net worth to over $10 million.
All of them profited from the post-presidency circuit: speeches, book deals, consulting gigs, and brand building. Most of the time these speaking gigs are in some way of buying access to power instead of paying a bribe. But Trump’s brand, unlike the others, had been forged in the fires of capitalism long before the White House. So, it’s no surprise he turned back to the private sector but this time, with crypto in his arsenal.
Trump’s post-presidency years were anything but peaceful. With 93 indictments and multiple criminal trials, his legal troubles ballooned into a historic and costly battle. Even billionaires feel the strain when the government, with virtually infinite resources, takes aim.
Court battles are notoriously expensive. In Trump’s case, he faced a $344 million civil fraud judgment in New York, with reports claiming he struggled to cover legal fees.
This isn’t just about money, it was about survival. His opponents, many of whom had previously welcomed his donations, now sought to politically and financially annihilate him. Trump’s enduring popularity among his base became a double-edged sword: the system wanted him out, but the people didn’t. And so began a high-stakes game, one in which crypto became more than just an investment. It became a lifeline. Trump believed the people were with him and they could understand this is a witch hunt, but he needed massive amounts of money to fight an election and legal battles at the same time.
A Hate Love relationship with cryptos
During Trump’s first term he was very critical and had a negative view towards crypto. He tweeted that he was “not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies,” stating that they were “not money” and their value was “highly volatile and based on thin air.”
When the Biden administration cracked down on the crypto industry—via the SEC under Gary Gensler, the Justice Department, and a slew of federal agencies—it alienated an entire sector of voters and donors. Innovation fled offshore, and American crypto projects faced a winter of regulatory uncertainty.
By 2024 March Trump was far behind Joe Biden in raising money for his campaign. Donors like to give winners more money and the expectations from pollsters were that Trump was not going to win especially with so many cases and so little money.
Elections are about getting people to vote for you based on issues or causes and you need a ton of money to get volunteers to go knock on doors and put those ads on media.
Elections are about forming coalitions. Democratic party is a coalition of minorities, immigrants, muslims, jews, socialists, educated white women and leftists. Trumps coalition is the evangelicals, white men, republicans and libertarians. Trump started supporting the crypto industry as such because donations from crypto founders to investors were coming his way.
By mid 2024, Trump had positioned himself as pro-crypto, speaking favorably about the industry and vowing to reverse Biden-era crackdowns. The industry noticed. Super PACs linked to crypto spent $131 million on congressional races, helping elect crypto-friendly lawmakers and reshaping the Republican landscape. Reports indicated that crypto donations made up nearly half of all corporate contributions to the 2024 election outpacing even oil companies and Wall Street banks. That’s not small change. Billionaires like Brian Armstrong of Coinbase joined the fray, backing Trump-aligned candidates and funneling millions into campaigns fighting for regulatory clarity and industry protection. But Trump didn’t stop at advocacy; he got in the game himself.
In September 2024, the Trump family unveiled World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture with a new token: $WLFI. A Trump business entity owns 60% of the company and is entitled to 75% of all revenue from coin sales. Critics pounced. Ethics watchdogs sounded the alarm. Was this a modern-day version of pay-to-play? U.S. Senators like Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff called for ethics investigations, even impeachment. The only problem is these same senators did not have any problem when their speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi and her husband made astronomical gains in the stock market even more than any hedge fund. In fact their investments were beating the S&P500 or the market by 3x some of the years with no down year. If any hedge fund has such returns there would be investigations into those funds for insider knowledge and trading.
Yet the model was entirely legal, and not so different from how other politicians built wealth; just newer, flashier, and digital.
The token raised $2.7 million initially, not huge but enough to kickstart what would become a multi-pronged crypto empire.
By early 2025, the company launched USD1, a dollar-pegged stablecoin backed by U.S. treasuries, with some Abu Dhabi firms reportedly using it to facilitate a $2 billion investment into Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange. Trump’s reach had gone global.
According to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, Trump and his business partners netted over $350 million in trading fees from their meme coin project alone. These fees weren’t tied to underlying economic value—but rather, to belief and brand. They had launched the $TRUMP and $MELANIA meme coins and sold it. The top 100 $TRUMP meme coin holders get to attend a private party with him and that is it. Most buyers of this meme coin should have lost money. It was trading initially at 40$ and now at 8$. They have not promised anything to the holders except the top holders get to have a private dinner with him. And if people still want to invest in those coins and lose money, good luck to them or shame on them. Maybe they just want to be part of the meme culture.
Trump’s critics raise fair questions:
Should a sitting (or returning) president profit from speculative assets like crypto? Are dinner parties for top token holders a form of unethical access? Do meme coins and stablecoins connected to political figures endanger the financial system?
The answers aren’t simple. On one hand, Trump is clearly capitalizing on his celebrity and political brand. But so did Barack Obama with Netflix deals, Bill Clinton with speaking engagements at $750K a pop, and Nancy Pelosi with stock trades so eerily well-timed that her portfolio outperformed hedge funds.
According to multiple reports, Pelosi’s returns beat those of some of the world’s most elite investment firms. Yet criticism is relatively muted. So when Trump earns millions through meme coins and tokenized assets, why is the outrage so much louder? The answer may lie in what Trump represents: not just a former president, but an outsider, a disruptor, and—according to some—a threat to the institutional status quo. I have asked this questions to Trump critics at dinner parties and the response that they are not in favor of past presidents speaking gigs or stock trades but what Trump does via crypto is way over the top. My thought is always so are they okay if the amount is smaller? Or are they not ok because it is Trump and crypto?
In 2024, Biden and Harris raised nearly $2 billion for their reelection campaign. Trump, by contrast, managed just $1 billion—yet won both the popular and electoral vote. Money may be necessary, but Trump proved it’s not sufficient. Crypto became the fuel that helped him reach new voters, fund operations, and build alliances in a system that was increasingly shut to him. It wasn’t about ideology; it was survival for Trump. In the world of politics where cash is king, Trump’s crypto moves gave him leverage without begging Wall Street. It gave him liquidity without book deals. And it gave him a moat against legal attack—because every new venture, every token sale, and every blockchain deal reinforced his financial armor.
Money Money Money
Let’s take a closer look at Donald Trump’s earnings from his ventures into cryptocurrency.
In 2022, Trump launched the Trump Digital Trading Card collection, a series of NFTs featuring caricatured images of himself in various heroic poses. The launch reportedly generated around $7 million in a mix of cash and cryptocurrency.
His deeper involvement came through World Liberty Financial (WLF), a decentralized finance (DeFi) venture co-managed by his sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. Under the deal structure, Trump’s business entity owns 60% of WLF and is entitled to 75% of all revenue from token sales. One of the early and most notable backers was Justin Sun, the founder of the TRON blockchain, who at the time was under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Despite these legal troubles, Sun reportedly invested $30 million into WLF, setting the stage for Trump to earn a significant share of future token investments. On January 19, 2025, just one day before Trump was sworn in again as president, Sun announced an additional $45 million investment. Other investors soon followed, bringing total token sales to $550 million, with an estimated $390 million flowing to Trump-linked entities. Although the SEC had opened an investigation into Justin Sun, it was ultimately dropped, allowing Sun and TRON to continue operations without penalty.
Beyond token sales, Trump has also benefited from the creation and promotion of a memecoin tied to his brand. According to Chainalysis and reporting from Forbes, trading fees and associated revenues from this memecoin earned Trump and his partners an additional $350 million.
Furthermore, his company holds a significant reserve of WLFI coins (World Liberty’s token) valued at approximately $400 million—though these assets are reportedly locked and not immediately liquid.
Most recently, in a move that signals even deeper involvement in the crypto industry, Trump Media & Technology Group filed a proposal with the SEC on June 5, 2025, to launch a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) under the name “Truth Social Bitcoin ETF.” In parallel, after Congress passed the Stablecoin Genius Act, World Liberty Financial announced the launch of a dollar-pegged stablecoin, positioning itself as a major player in U.S. crypto infrastructure. All in all, as of now it looks like he and his family have made close to a billion dollars pre-tax. For any of the opponents and democrats who decry at this, I ask them to read the Bible passage: John Chapter 8:1-11; Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.
A crypto empire emerges. Will it last?
Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are actively managing World Liberty Financial and rely on three key partners—Zachary Folkman, Chase Herro, and Zach Witkoff—for day-to-day operations.
Zach Witkoff is the son of Steve Witkoff, a billionaire real estate developer who served as President Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East and is known to be one of his closest confidants. Herro and Folkman previously founded Dough Finance, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that suffered a $2 million hack in July 2024. Although they initially pledged to reimburse users, all communication stopped by August, and a fraud lawsuit was filed against Herro in May 2025, as reported by CoinTelegraph. The pair has been linked to several other ventures that have faced setbacks, including Subify, a subscription platform that ran into technical problems and legal trouble. Notably, Folkman also ran a relationship advice company called “Date Hotter Girls.” Their business history has raised red flags among industry observers, with many questioning their qualifications in both technical and financial domains, especially within the crypto space. As a result, traditional cryptocurrency investors have shown little interest in backing their ventures, although there always seems to be a niche market willing to take the risk.
Many crypto projects have a history of scams and rug pulls. These crypto platforms are honey pots for hackers. People are going to lose money and should the president want his legacy to be tarnished by some crypto project? Herro and Folkman were initially the sole directors and members of World Liberty Financial. However, in January 2025, control of the company transitioned to WLF Holdco LLC, a firm in which the Trump family owns a 60% stake. This change in ownership structure effectively removed Herro and Folkman from their controlling roles in the organization. I guess Trump and his family are noticing these issues and taking care of it also.
It will definitely be an interesting four years for America, the world and cryptocurrencies. Europe and NATO had to increase their defense spending. Most countries had to reduce tariffs on American imports. Illegal immigration has gone down by 95%. Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” has passed in congress. His detractors are upset saying this bill and its cuts will affect the poorest because they live on Medicaid and government funding. His supporters are happy because they sent him to do exactly all this.
Interesting times!
Nithin Eapen is a technologist and entrepreneur with a deep passion for finance, cryptocurrencies, prediction markets and technology. You can write to him at neapen@gmail.com
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