Written by: 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 Bitcoin's price first breaking through $100,000. Image source: Bloomberg
On the surface, Donald Trump's personal net worth seems to have changed little since he returned to the White House: it was $6.5 billion on election day and is now $6.4 billion.
But a closer look at this data reveals that he and his family have undergone an unprecedented and notable transformation in how they consolidate their wealth empire, and the speed at which they benefit from their fame, influence, and power far exceeds previous times.
Whether applying his brand to real estate projects or linking it to perfumes and mattresses, the Trump family has long leveraged licensing agreements for quick profits, especially compared to previous real estate developments that typically required years of planning and execution. Now, with cryptocurrency, the Trump family has accelerated the monetization of its brand.
Coupled with the easing of restrictions on overseas trading by Trump's second administration, all of this has created a feast of wealth. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, cryptocurrency investments have brought Donald Trump at least $620 million in wealth appreciation within months. This index first estimated the earnings the Trump family gained from projects like World Liberty Financial and Trump Memecoin (TRUMP).
Trump's wealth is increasingly linked to cryptocurrency and Memecoins. Source: Bloomberg Billionaires Index (Note: Liabilities are not included. The publicly traded assets in the latest valuation are as of the end of June.)
An increasing number of cryptocurrencies and lesser-known companies have gained value through their association with Trump and his "Make America Great Again (MAGA)" movement, and the money earned by these cryptocurrencies and companies far exceeds the $34 million in revenue the Trump Group earned last year through real estate licensing deals.
Eric Trump, Executive Vice President of the Trump Group and second son of Trump, stated, "I am incredibly proud of our outstanding company; we have never been stronger."
While President Trump's assets are held in a trust managed by Donald Trump Jr., he still directly benefits from the success of the Trump Group, and Bloomberg’s Wealth Index attributes the family's various interests to this "patriarch." Currently, many private investments involving Trump's children have not been included, as details of their financial interests remain unclear, including the private club Executive Branch in Washington, a bitcoin hoarder transformed from a Japanese hotel company called Metaplanet, the broadcasting and podcasting company Salem Media Group Inc., the prediction market startup Kalshi, and the online pharmaceutical retailer BlinkRX.
Despite Donald Trump and his children getting involved in the cryptocurrency space, since December, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have spoken at events in Abu Dhabi, Washington, Dubai, and Las Vegas, sometimes separately and sometimes together. However, one of the biggest drivers of Trump's personal wealth is a long-gestating domestic project.
Eric Trump (left) and Donald Trump Jr. at the Bitcoin 2025 conference. Image source: Bloomberg
In January this year, Trump National Doral was approved to build about 1,500 luxury apartments on the site, a long-term goal of the Trump family that required extensive outreach with the community. According to Bloomberg's calculations, this project has increased the value of the over 600-acre site in suburban Miami, which has four golf courses and a resort with more than 600 rooms, from previously $350 million to $1.5 billion.
Meanwhile, the extreme volatility of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., the publicly traded social media company under Trump, has been noted. 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 attempts to enter the financial and bitcoin sectors, Trump's stake is still valued at $2 billion.
However, the surge in cryptocurrency projects associated with Trump has provided the family with new avenues for profit.
Among the most notable is World Liberty Financial, a platform that sells its own tokens and issues a stablecoin called USD1. USD1 is a cryptocurrency intended to be pegged to the value of the US dollar. The Trump family profits from this project through token sales, holding a portion of the parent company's shares, and holding its World Liberty Financial tokens.
As of March, World Liberty had sold tokens worth $550 million. According to Bloomberg's calculations, about $390 million flowed to the Trump family. The Trump family also owns 22.5 billion tokens, which are valued at over $2 billion based on the token transfer prices from June. Since these tokens are non-transferable, they are excluded from Trump's net worth calculation, although the company indicated in recent weeks that this situation may soon change.
According to details on the company's website, the Trump family reduced its stake in World Liberty from 60% to 40% last month. It is unclear who the buyer is, and it is also unclear what the Trump family gained from this divestment.
World Liberty also launched the stablecoin USD1. The Abu Dhabi-based technology investment firm MGX announced plans to invest $2 billion in the cryptocurrency exchange Binance using this token, significantly increasing the circulation of USD1. According to the Wall Street Journal, Binance founder Zhao Changpeng has been seeking a presidential pardon after admitting to violating US anti-money laundering laws. He is currently serving as an advisor to World Liberty alongside cryptocurrency industry leaders like Sun Yuchen and Bilal bin Saqib, chairman of Pakistan's cryptocurrency committee.
Donald Trump attended the Bitcoin 2024 conference held in Nashville. Image source: Bloomberg
According to Bloomberg's calculations, if we extrapolate based on the market value of stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group Inc. and the USDC circulation ratio, World Liberty is valued at about $1.4 billion. Due to the limited adoption of USD1, Bloomberg did not include it in Trump's net worth, but its $2.2 billion circulation means World Liberty could earn about $100 million from reserves this year.
Another Memecoin named after the president (TRUMP) was launched two days before his inauguration. When the price of TRUMP rises, the Trump family benefits: Fight Fight Fight and the Trump Group's affiliate CIC Digital hold 80% of the TRUMP supply, part of which will be gradually unlocked and sold over three years. Memecoins have no intrinsic value, and trading is entirely based on market sentiment.
Trump's Memecoin (TRUMP) is highly sought after due to its association with the current president's family, and its demand skyrocketed after a competition held this May. This competition invited 220 of the largest TRUMP token holders to a private dinner where Trump spoke at his golf club in Virginia. Sun Yuchen was also one of the guests, who took a selfie wearing a black tie on his way to the event at the Trump golf club in Virginia. Guests enjoyed filet mignon and pan-seared halibut, while protesters outside held signs calling it a "scam fest."
Valuing Memecoins is very difficult, often because the token creators control the vast majority of the supply, and once sold, the market collapses. Cryptocurrency risk modeling firm Gauntlet found that the digital wallet associated with the creation of Memecoin TRUMP holds nearly 17 million TRUMP tokens.
These wallets also transferred approximately 17 million TRUMP tokens to cryptocurrency exchanges.
On May 22, outside the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, activists from the organization "Our Revolution" held a demonstration. That day, a private dinner hosted by Trump invited 220 of the largest TRUMP token holders. Image source: AP
The Trump Group holds 40% of the total supply of TRUMP tokens, which corresponds to its disclosed stake in World Liberty Financial. According to Bloomberg's calculations, after applying a large liquidity discount and accounting for nearly $300 million in transaction and sale proceeds, Trump's Memecoin investment is valued at about $150 million, not including the 800 million tokens that will be unlocked in the coming 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 two separate projects, they have now intersected at least in one aspect: Eric Trump revealed that World Liberty Financial plans to accumulate a large amount of TRUMP tokens as part of the company’s cryptocurrency asset reserves.
In addition to this, the Trump family has an ace in the cryptocurrency field.
American Bitcoin, an entity spun off from a small investment bank under Trump, is planning to become a publicly traded company, which would add another source of wealth from cryptocurrency to the Trump family. American Bitcoin originated in February this year, with a press release stating that it would focus on artificial intelligence infrastructure and data centers. By March, the company had developed a new strategy, shifting to the cryptocurrency sector and rebranding.
Bitcoin miner Hut 8 Corp. has agreed to acquire a majority stake in American Bitcoin and transfer nearly all of its cryptocurrency mining equipment. Hut 8 Corp. plans to merge with the low market cap company Gryphon Digital Mining Inc., which is listed on NASDAQ, 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 puts the valuation of the new joint venture at over $3 billion. Considering the main asset of the new company will be the Bitcoin mining equipment provided by Hut 8 (with a book value of about $120 million), the figure of $3 billion seems excessively high by any traditional valuation standard.
However, like many of the assets and businesses constituting Trump's new wealth, fundamentals are often not the focus.
