In the cryptocurrencies that bear the signature of the Trump family, a steady rule seems to apply: they themselves reap huge financial benefits, while the bulk of the risk is transferred to the investors. A Reuters investigation claims that American President Donald Trump and his sons have increased their family wealth by at least $2.3 billion through their core crypto activities, assuming little to no financial risk. At the same time, the investors who participated in these specific ventures have suffered total losses of an equivalent amount.
An investment that turned into a nightmare
In January 2025, when the cryptocurrency market was in a period of intense optimism, Fatime Elrgdawy decided to invest in the $TRUMP meme coin, following a message from the then-president-elect urging his supporters to acquire the new digital currency. The 29-year-old software engineer from Santa Barbara, California, invested $2,000 of her savings, believing that the use of the Trump name was a guarantee of reliability. A few months later, the value of her investment had been reduced to less than $120, while the Trump family had already collected hundreds of millions of dollars from the sales of these specific tokens, without having essentially allocated any of their own capital.
The same business model is repeated
$TRUMP is one of the four major crypto projects of the Trump family examined by the Reuters investigation. Although each venture has a different structure, the basic strategy remains the same. The family assumes minimal financial risk, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump promote the project aggressively, investors flow in en masse, and the family reaps significant revenue. However, when the prices of digital assets collapse, the losses are passed on to the buyers.
Over a million investors with losses
The Reuters analysis estimates that since Donald Trump's return to the White House, the family has generated profits of at least $2.3 billion from its crypto activities. On the other side are more than one million investors, who by the end of April had total net losses of $2.3 billion as well. The losers include both private cryptocurrency investors and those who gained exposure through stocks or ETFs related to the Trump family's projects.
How the investigation was conducted
Reuters based its findings on an analysis of blockchain data, thousands of corporate documents, public financial disclosures, statements by the Trumps and their associates, as well as interviews with cryptocurrency market executives. The conclusions were reviewed by more than a dozen experts in the fields of accounting and crypto, who characterized both the methodology and the calculations as reasonable.
World Liberty Financial at the center
Central to the Trump ecosystem is World Liberty Financial, which is the family's largest crypto venture. The company has generated more than $1.4 billion through sales of governance tokens, which were presented as a tool for creating a more democratic financial system. Despite the promises, the value of these specific tokens has recorded a significant decline. World Liberty has also developed the USD1 stablecoin and has filed an application for a banking license in the United States, claiming that it continues to expand its ecosystem.
Investors locked in until 2030
Many of the early investors cannot liquidate their holdings, as the company has imposed restrictions on token sales. In fact, following a decision approved by the largest holders, most tokens cannot be made available on the market before 2030, when Donald Trump will have completed his second presidential term. This decision has caused intense reactions from investors, who claim they are watching their potential profits disappear without being able to sell their assets. In the cryptocurrencies that bear the signature of the Trump family, a steady rule seems to apply: they themselves reap huge financial benefits, while the bulk of the risk is transferred to the investors.
The Justin Sun case
Among the largest investors is entrepreneur Justin Sun, who filed a lawsuit in American courts accusing World Liberty of freezing his tokens when he refused to invest in another of the company's products. World Liberty responded with its own lawsuit, accusing Sun of defamation and of attempting to manipulate the market through coordinated movements.
$TRUMP and the collapse of the meme coin
A few days before his inauguration, Donald Trump publicly promoted $TRUMP via a social media post, while Eric Trump called it "the hottest digital meme in the world." The token soared to an all-time high of $75.35, but immediately afterward it collapsed by about 80%, as early investors cashed out their profits. According to Reuters' calculations, this specific project has brought in about $616 million for the Trump family, while investors have lost more than $700 million.
Brokerage firms and new losses
The Trump family also promoted the companies AI Financial Corp. (formerly ALT5 Sigma) and American Bitcoin as easy ways to participate in the crypto market via the stock market. ALT5 Sigma raised hundreds of millions of dollars to buy World Liberty tokens, but its stock collapsed from levels above $9 to about 75 cents, causing losses of hundreds of millions for investors. American Bitcoin followed a similar path, created through a partnership with Hut 8 and listed on the Nasdaq. Despite the optimistic predictions of Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump regarding the Bitcoin market, the stock fell from $11 to about $1.15 by the end of April.
A model with minimal risk for the family
According to Reuters, the strategy followed by the Trump family resembles the business model that Donald Trump used for decades in the real estate sector: licensing the name and brand without significant investment of equity. He himself had stated as early as 2016 that licensing deals are the best business deals because they do not require personal investment and entail minimal financial risk. The investigation concludes that the same model has now been applied to the cryptocurrency market, turning the Trump family's crypto projects into a global revenue-generating machine, while thousands of investors were faced with large financial losses.
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