Trump dined and schmoozed with 220 anonymous investors on May 22 at his Virginia golf club because they had collectively paid $394 million to buy his near-worthless crypto coin called $TRUMP. Their grubstakes ranged from $55,000 to $37.7 million, and the coins sank in value from $75 apiece in January to as low as $14. Coming on the heels of the $400-million jet “gift” by Qatar, it was another shabby display of payola and greed by the White House. “The public should know the attendees at his coin gala so Americans know who may be trying to buy access to the President,” chided the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal. One notable figure to emerge is Jason Sun, a 34-year-old billionaire from China, who is reported to have paid $18.5 million for coins and invested an additional $75 million in the Trump family’s World Liberal Financial, which charges high fees to facilitate crypto transactions. Jason was charged in 2023 by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for operating a network that facilitated the concealment and movement of funds for crypto criminals. But in February, Trump authorities paused the case as they began dismantling crypto enforcement across the board. Noted Senator Jeff Merkley: “The dinner is a stunning public display of corruption.”
The Trumps have struck gold and are earning staggering amounts of money in cryptocurrency. Many political commentators worry that America may be moving toward autocracy, but kleptocracy and cryptocracy are arriving. It was only a handful of years ago that Donald Trump mused on Fox News that he believed crypto was a “scam,” as many do. Now, Crypto is the new Swiss bank account, offering complete anonymity and promoted by Trump’s Silicon Valley billionaires, who share a baked-in prejudice against taxes, regulations, or rules of any kind. Now, adoption is growing because the most famous and powerful man on the planet, Trump and his family, are all in. By May 2025, some estimate that the family's fortune had grown to $2.9 billion, with crypto assets accounting for approximately 40% of their net worth. Some believe this is vastly understated.
The fintech revolution will upend banks, governments, and geopolitics as it offers financial secrecy to both buyers and sellers. It bypasses scrutiny as well as law enforcement, courts, tax collectors, former spouses, and government officials. Conflicts of interest remain unaddressed, including the fact that Trump dismantles regulations on cryptocurrency, uses taxpayer dollars to purchase coins to create a strategic stockpile, and his sons—Donald Jr., Eric, and Barron—run the family's financial empire. When asked about the ethics, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly quizzically said: “President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest.”
There are other serious risks associated with the massive surge in cryptocurrencies, including economic damage to buyers because “meme” coins such as $TRUMP and $MELANIA have no intrinsic value. For instance, Trump launched and touted his $TRUMP “meme” coin on January 17, days before his Inauguration, for $75 apiece, and they quickly plummeted. (Presumably, purchases are only made as souvenirs, to curry favor with the President, or to secretly transfer funds to him and his family.) The only winner is the issuer (the Trumps) — unless buyers receive a profit if the hype and promotion attract other buyers who pay more for the coin.
The Trumps have also issued “stablecoins,” which are more legitimate because their prices are pegged to a reserve asset, such as the U.S. dollar or gold. Here’s a rundown of the family portfolio based on Wikipedia entries and estimates:
1. $TRUMP meme coin – one billion created, 800 million kept by family-affiliates. At issuing price, all were theoretically worth $27 billion, or $20 billion for the Trumps, but the outstanding value of the coins bought initially has plummeted. No one knows how many were bought.
2. World Liberty Financial ($WLFI stable coin): This is a crypto “investment bank” and has issued coins called $WLFI that are pegged to a reserve asset (the US dollar). Estimates are that World Liberty has raised over $550 million through the sale of these “governance” tokens ($WLFI). Buying one or more is equivalent to buying stock in World Liberal Financial where the Trump’s retain control.
3. “USD1” Stablecoin was launched by World Liberty Financial. Abu Dhabi has announced it will buy the world’s largest crypto currency exchange business (Binance) and in other ventures for $2 billion using World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin. Trump’s World Liberty Financial will earn millions in fees for these transactions and probably retain some ownership in these businesses.
4. $MELANIA meme coin, is claimed by some to have raised millions in sales and fees, but actual values are a “mystery”, according to a Financial Times article.
All totals and buyer or seller details are approximate because no disclosure is required, nor is bona fide oversight available. The meme coins are worth whatever the next buyer is willing to pay. These $TRUMP and $MELANIA meme coins are notably troublesome, which is why bills are before Congress to end the ability of presidents and members of Congress to profit from such questionable crypto assets. "The Trump meme coin is the single most corrupt act ever committed by a president,” said Sen. Chris Murphy. “Donald Trump is essentially posting his Venmo [an American mobile payment app] for any billionaire CEO or foreign oligarch to cash in some favors by secretly sending him millions of dollars.”
Trump is getting away with all of this because he is allowed to own, promote, and earn income from businesses while in office through the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, the same structure he used during his first term. Donald Trump Jr. serves as the sole trustee. However, Trump retains control, and the First Family’s involvement in crypto brings it into close contact with money launderers and questionable entities. For instance, World Liberty Financial’s new partner is KuCoin, a Seychelles-headquartered crypto exchange that is banned in the US and was fined $300 million for money laundering, according to Forbes. When asked about this relationship, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Forbes, “President Trump is compliant with all conflict-of-interest rules” and categorized reporting about his businesses as “years of lies and false accusations.”
But former Republican Congressman Dave Trott told The Guardian, “Trump has taken corruption and self-dealing to a new level. He seems singularly motivated to deregulate the crypto industry for the financial benefit of himself and his family, and few Republicans are calling him out.” As long as he reigns, sketchy players and foreign governments will continue to line up at the trough unless there is supervision and full disclosure. As Senator Murphy “crypto is the biggest corruption scandal in history because it’s corruption at scale.”
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Looks like the Dems will have a central issue for the voters in 2028. Unfortunately corruption on this scale is hard to focus because the general public is still mystified ( cryptic) about the real market impact of the crypto ( lots of coins) get rich hype.
As long as Main Street thinks that "crypto" means some foreign billionaires ripping each other off at some fancy golf club, few will be alarmed. Economists need to keep explaining how these schemes will destabilize the public economy and grow the underground criminal market.
Keep on exposing the rot at the top.
What to say about this? I am imagining Trump, the Movie. It begins with a sad, angry little rich kid in Queens, trailing his father on his rounds to lie, cheat, swindle and persecute various people in the community, follows him as he grows into a dunce at school and bully on the playground, through his banishment to a military school for incorrigibles, into Wharton where he was admitted on false, paid-for-by-Dad, premises, and continues roughly through his early days in Manhattan, where under the tutelage of Roy Cohn he became a full-fledged sleaze and slick willy in real estate, through six bankruptcies he initiated to avoid paying his creditors and eventually into the embrace of those in the billionaire class who wanted a perfect stooge to run for office, down the golden escalator and into the White House where he proceeded to cash in on the presidency by bilking the entire nation, and eventually, in his second term, the world. Kind of like a panoramic look at what Al Capone would look like at the dawn of the AI age. And if anyone thinks Capone was a murderer and Trump is not, just take a good hard look at the deaths Trump has been and will be responsible for in any number of places and ways, worldwide. Cue to: "Gosh, honey, let's take the kids to see this at the AMC!"