Media365
US President Donald Trump defended his family’s booming cryptocurrency business interests, insisting there was “nothing illegal” about the hundreds of millions of dollars they have earned from digital asset ventures, even as fresh disclosures showed his crypto empire has generated more than $1.4 billion since his return to the White House.
Speaking in an interview with CNBC, Trump said he was not fully aware of the extent of his cryptocurrency-related earnings but rejected suggestions that his involvement in the sector was improper.
“I could know about it. I didn’t. There’s nothing illegal. There’s nothing wrong with it I could know,” Trump said when asked about the sizeable profits disclosed in his latest financial filings.
The remarks came after Trump’s annual financial disclosure revealed that he earned more than $500 million from World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency platform he co-founded with his sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. Separate disclosures also showed Trump
reporting at least $1.4 billion in income during 2025 from cryptocurrency and memecoin-related businesses, underscoring how digital assets have become a major pillar of the Trump family’s business empire.
The 927-page disclosure filed with the US Office of Government Ethics showed that Trump’s overall income last year was estimated at $2.2 billion, drawn from a mix of real estate, golf resorts, licensing deals, branded merchandise, legal settlements and digital assets. World Liberty Financial generated more than $500 million through governance token sales, while another Trump-linked company, CIC Digital LLC, brought in more than $600 million from the president’s branded $TRUMP memecoin, launched just days before his second inauguration.
Crypto windfall and investor losses
The scale of Trump’s crypto earnings has become the biggest political flashpoint, not just because of how much he made, but because many retail investors who backed his ventures —
including some of his own supporters — have been left nursing steep losses.
The $TRUMP memecoin, which features an image of Trump raising his fist after the 2024 assassination attempt, attracted hundreds of thousands of buyers hoping the token’s value would soar alongside Trump’s political comeback. Instead, many were left holding assets worth a fraction of what they paid.
According to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, around 764,000 crypto wallets lost money after buying the $TRUMP token. Only 58 investors reportedly made profits of more than $10 million each, with most cashing out early before the token’s price slumped.
Fresh analysis by crypto research firm Nansen paints a similarly bleak picture. Roughly two-thirds of the 1.48 million wallets that have purchased Trump’s memecoin since its January 2025 launch are currently sitting on losses. Among buyers of World Liberty Financial’s $WLFI token, nearly 85 per cent of investors in the secondary market remain underwater.
While many retail investors watched the value of their holdings collapse, Trump’s businesses continued collecting revenue through token sales and transaction fees whenever the coins were traded.
Crypto and competition with China
When asked whether he had personally been involved in the crypto ventures that generated the windfall, Trump shifted the focus to what he described as the strategic importance of digital assets for the United States.
“The way I view crypto is a little differently: We have to be at the top,” he said.
Drawing a parallel with artificial intelligence, Trump argued that the United States must maintain its technological lead over China.
“Like for instance AI. We’re leading substantially in AI over China and everybody else,” he said.
Trump has increasingly championed cryptocurrencies since returning to the White House, portraying the industry as central to America’s economic competitiveness and technological leadership. During his 2024 presidential campaign, he embraced the crypto sector after previously expressing scepticism about digital currencies, promising a more supportive regulatory environment if elected.
Adding to the irony, Trump himself had dismissed Bitcoin as a “scam” in 2021 before emerging as one of the cryptocurrency industry’s most influential political champions.
World Liberty Financial under scrutiny
World Liberty Financial was launched in late 2024 as Trump sought a return to the White House. The platform quickly became one of the most prominent crypto ventures associated with a sitting US president, attracting both investor interest and political scrutiny.
Critics, including ethics experts and Democratic lawmakers, have argued that the president’s financial ties to businesses operating in sectors influenced by federal policy create potential conflicts of interest. They have questioned whether Trump’s policy decisions could directly or indirectly benefit ventures linked to his family.
Former Federal Reserve examiner Lee Reiners, now a cryptocurrency researcher at Duke University, said Trump’s business model allowed him to profit regardless of whether ordinary investors ultimately made or lost money.
“It is hard to wrap your head around that the president of the United States would engage in this level of self-enrichment at the expense of so many of his supporters,” Reiners said.
Former Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement official John Reed Stark also criticised what he described as weak investor protections, saying many retail buyers had effectively been left exposed after regulators eased oversight of memecoins.
The White House has maintained that Trump’s business operations are managed separately by his two eldest sons, who oversee the Trump Organization and related ventures.
Trump rejects conflict-of-interest concerns
Responding to criticism that his children could benefit from information unavailable to ordinary investors because of his position, Trump argued that such concerns were unavoidable given the nature of the presidency.
“Almost anything they do, if they want to buy a truck, if they buy an energy efficient truck, they have inside information,” he said.
Trump suggested that because the presidency touches nearly every aspect of the economy, virtually any commercial activity involving his family could be portrayed as benefiting from his office.
Asked about the disclosures on Wednesday, Trump defended his financial success, saying he had earned substantial wealth long before entering politics.
“I made a lot of money before I became president,” he told reporters.
Trump also insisted he does not personally direct his investment portfolio, saying independent financial institutions manage his accounts without consulting him or his family.
“I don’t even speak to them,” Trump said. “They’re big institutions and they run it.”
The White House has repeatedly rejected allegations of conflicts of interest, saying Trump’s businesses are managed by his adult sons and remain separate from his official duties. Spokeswoman Anna Kelly said neither Trump nor his family had engaged in conflicts of interest and maintained that every action taken by the administration was in the best interests of the American people.
Although cryptocurrency dominated the disclosures, it was only one part of Trump’s expanding business empire. The filing also showed millions of dollars in revenue from Trump-branded Bibles, watches, trainers and other merchandise, including about $4.7 million from watch sales alone.
Trump also earned tens of millions through overseas hotel, resort and condominium licensing deals, including projects in countries simultaneously negotiating tariffs, military cooperation and other policy matters with Washington.
The disclosure further detailed payments of more than $86 million from legal settlements involving media and technology companies, including ABC, CBS, Meta, YouTube and X.
But it is the image of a president earning billions from crypto while many of the people who bought into his digital tokens watched their investments collapse that is likely to keep fuelling political attacks in Washington.
