Trump Family Made $2.3 Billion From Crypto - Their Investors Lost Exactly That Much

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Trump Family Made $2.3 Billion From Crypto – Their Investors Lost Exactly That Much

A Reuters investigation finds retail buyers absorbed the losses while the Trump family carried virtually no financial risk.

The Trump family has pulled in at least $2.3 billion from four crypto ventures since Donald Trump returned to the White House. The people who invested in those ventures lost the same amount.

What Happened

Fatime Elrgdawy, a 29-year-old software engineer in Santa Barbara, put $2,000 into the $TRUMP meme coin days before Trump’s inauguration. She thought a president’s name behind a coin meant it was safe. Today, her holding is worth under $120. The Trump family, meanwhile, collected hundreds of millions from the same token launch, without putting up meaningful capital of their own.

That’s the pattern Reuters found across all four Trump crypto projects: the family lent its name, the sons hyped the product, investors piled in, and prices eventually collapsed.

The Numbers

The flagship venture, World Liberty Financial, has generated over $1.4 billion for the Trumps from governance token sales alone. Investors who bought those tokens on crypto exchanges have seen prices fall 87% from their peak. The $TRUMP meme coin brought the family around $616 million; buyers lost more than $700 million.

Two Nasdaq-listed companies round out the picture. ALT5 Sigma, now renamed AI Financial Corp, raised $750 million selling shares, used most of it to buy World Liberty tokens, and watched its stock fall from over $9 to 75 cents. American Bitcoin, backed by Eric and Donald Trump Jr., debuted at $11 per share and closed April at $1.15. Outside investors in both companies have collectively lost over $875 million.

The Trumps, by contrast, appear to have invested little to none of their own money in any of these projects, based on Reuters’ review of blockchain records, regulatory filings, and interviews with more than a dozen accounting and crypto experts.

Market reaction

The declines in Trump-linked crypto assets have broadly mirrored, and in some cases outpaced, the wider crypto market’s pullbacks. World Liberty tokens are down 87%. The $TRUMP meme coin has fallen 97% from its January 2025 peak.

Why it matters for traders

The Trump family’s revenue-sharing structure means they collect money from token sales regardless of what happens to prices afterward. Eight government ethics experts told Reuters this arrangement represents a conflict of interest unlike anything seen in modern American history – legal, but unprecedented.

World Liberty’s lockup policy, which prevents most token holders from selling until 2030, has trapped investors in positions they can’t exit as prices fall.

What to watch

World Liberty’s pending U.S. bank license application and its USD1 stablecoin, now carrying a $4.5 billion market cap, are the next milestones to monitor. Crypto billionaire Justin Sun has already sued the company over frozen holdings, and several investors are exploring legal action over the token lockup.

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