Author: Tom Maloney, Annie Massa, and Demetrios Pogkas, Bloomberg
Translated by: Luffy, Foresight News
In December 2024, a photo of Donald Trump holding Bitcoin was displayed in a Coinhero store in Hong Kong, marking the first time Bitcoin's price broke $100,000. Image source: Bloomberg
On the surface, Donald Trump's personal net worth seems to have changed little since his return to the White House: $6.5 billion on election day, now $6.4 billion.
However, a deeper look reveals an unprecedented shift in how he and his family have consolidated their wealth empire, and they are now benefiting from their fame, influence, and power at a speed far beyond previous levels.
Whether applying their brand to real estate projects or associating it with perfumes and mattresses, the Trump family has long used licensing agreements to quickly make money, with real estate development typically requiring years of planning and execution. Now, with cryptocurrency, the Trump family has further accelerated their brand monetization.
Combined with Trump's second administration's relaxation of restrictions on overseas transactions, this has created a wealth feast. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, crypto investments have brought Donald Trump at least $620 million in wealth appreciation in just a few months. The index first valued the earnings from projects like World Liberty Financial and Trump Meme coin (TRUMP).
Trump's wealth is increasingly linked to cryptocurrency and Memecoin. Source: Bloomberg Billionaires Index (Note: Excludes liabilities. Publicly traded assets in the latest valuation are as of the end of June.)
More and more cryptocurrencies and little-known companies are gaining value through their connection to Trump and his "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) movement, with the money earned far exceeding the $34 million in real estate licensing transactions earned by the Trump Organization last year.
Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, stated: "I am incredibly proud of our outstanding companies. We have never been this strong."
While Trump's assets are held in a trust fund managed by Donald Trump Jr., he still directly benefits from the Trump Organization's success. The Bloomberg Wealth Index attributes the family's various interests to the "patriarch". Currently, many private investments involving Trump's children are not included because their financial details are unclear, including Executive Branch in Washington, Metaplanet (a Japanese hotel company transformed into a Bitcoin hodler), Salem Media Group Inc., prediction market startup Kalshi, and online pharmacy retailer BlinkRX.
Although Trump and his children are all involved in the cryptocurrency space. Since December alone, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have given speeches at events in Abu Dhabi, Washington, Dubai, and Las Vegas, sometimes separately, sometimes together. But one of the biggest drivers of Trump's personal wealth is a long-brewing domestic project.
Eric Trump (left) and Donald Trump Jr. at the Bitcoin 2025 Conference. Image source: Bloomberg
In January, Trump National Doral was approved to build approximately 1,500 luxury apartments on the site, a long-term goal requiring extensive community promotion. According to Bloomberg's calculations, this project has increased the value of the over 600-acre property with four golf courses and a resort with more than 600 rooms from $350 million to $1.5 billion.
Meanwhile, Trump's publicly traded social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., has experienced significant volatility. As the parent company of Truth Social, it reported a net loss of $401 million last year but added over $4 billion to Trump's wealth in October. Now, even as the company tries to enter finance and Bitcoin, Trump's stake is still valued at $2 billion.
However, the surge of Trump-related crypto projects has provided new avenues for the family to profit.
The most notable is World Liberty Financial, a platform selling its own tokens and issuing a stablecoin called USD1. USD1 is a cryptocurrency designed to anchor the dollar's value. The Trump family profits from token sales, holding partial shares in the project's parent company, and holding World Liberty Financial tokens.
As of March, World Liberty had sold $550 million worth of tokens. Bloomberg calculates that approximately $390 million went to the Trump family. The Trump family also owns 22.5 billion tokens, valued at over $2 billion based on the token's trading price in June. Since these tokens are non-transferable, they are excluded from Trump's net worth calculation, although the company recently suggested this might change soon.
According to the company's website, the Trump family reduced its stake in World Liberty from 60% to 40% last month. It remains unclear who the buyer is and what the Trump family gained from this divestment.
World Liberty also launched the stablecoin USD1. MGX, a tech investment company based in Abu Dhabi, stated it will use this token to invest $2 billion in crypto exchange Binance, significantly enhancing USD1's liquidity. According to the Wall Street Journal, Binance founder CZ, who admitted to violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws, has been seeking a presidential pardon. He currently serves as an advisor to World Liberty alongside crypto industry leaders Justin Sun and Bilal Bin Saqib, chairman of the Pakistan Cryptocurrency Commission.
Donald Trump attends the Bitcoin 2024 Conference in Nashville. Image source: Bloomberg
Based on Bloomberg's calculations, using the market capitalization to circulation volume ratio of stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group Inc., World Liberty is valued at around $1.4 billion. Due to limited USD1 adoption, Bloomberg has not included it in Trump's net worth, but its $2.2 billion circulation suggests World Liberty could earn about $100 million from reserves this year.
Another Memecoin (TRUMP) named after the president was launched two days before his inauguration. When TRUMP's price rises, the Trump family will benefit: Fight Fight Fight and Trump Organization affiliate CIC Digital hold 80% of the TRUMP supply, with some tokens to be gradually unlocked and sold over three years. Memecoin has no fundamental value and trades entirely on market sentiment.
Trump's Memecoin (TRUMP) has been highly sought after due to its connection with the current presidential family, and its demand soared after a competition in May. The competition invited 220 of the largest TRUMP token holders to a private dinner with Trump at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia, where he delivered a speech. Justin Sun was also a guest, and he posted a selfie wearing a black tie while en route to the event venue. Guests enjoyed filet mignon and pan-seared halibut, while protesters outside held signs calling it a "scammer's gathering".
Valuing Memecoin is extremely difficult, typically because the token's creators control the vast majority of the supply, which would collapse the market if sold. Crypto risk modeling company Gauntlet found that digital wallets associated with TRUMP's creation hold nearly 17 million TRUMP tokens.
These wallets have additionally transferred approximately 17 million TRUMP tokens to crypto exchanges.
On May 22, activists from the "Our Revolution" organization held a demonstration outside the Trump National Golf Course in Sterling, Virginia. That day, a private dinner inviting the 220 largest TRUMP token holders was held at this location. Image source: Associated Press
The Trump Group holds 40% of TRUMP's total token supply, which matches its disclosed stake in World Liberty Financial. According to Bloomberg's calculations, after applying a large liquidity discount and including nearly $300 million in transaction and sale proceeds, Trump's Memecoin investment is valued at approximately $150 million, not including 800 million tokens set to be unlocked over the next three years starting later this month. At current prices, these 800 million tokens are worth over $7 billion.
Although World Liberty Financial and TRUMP were initially independent projects, they now intersect at least in one aspect: Eric Trump revealed that World Liberty Financial plans to accumulate a large number of TRUMP tokens as the company's crypto asset reserve.
Moreover, the Trump family has another ace in the crypto field.
American Bitcoin, an entity spun off from a small investment bank under Trump, is planning to become a publicly listed company, which will add another source of crypto wealth for the Trump family. When American Bitcoin was established in February this year, a press release stated it would focus on AI infrastructure and data centers. By March, the company had developed a new strategy, shifting towards the crypto field and changing its name.
Bitcoin miner Hut 8 Corp. has agreed to acquire a majority stake in American Bitcoin and transfer almost all of its crypto mining equipment. Hut 8 Corp. plans to merge with Nasdaq-listed small-cap company Gryphon Digital Mining Inc. to take the entire company public. The Trump family and its partners hold a 20% stake in American Bitcoin.
According to Bloomberg's calculations, Gryphon's stock price values the new joint venture at over $3 billion. Considering the new company's primary assets will be Bitcoin mining equipment from Hut 8 (with a book value of around $120 million), the $3 billion figure seems excessive by any traditional valuation standard.
However, as with many assets and enterprises that constitute Trump's new wealth, fundamentals are often not the focus.
