Trump amassed stock in crypto companies after SEC dropped cases

President Donald Trump bought up Robinhood stock and earned considerable income through Coinbase transactions after his administration’s Securities and Exchange Commission dropped investigations into their cryptocurrency-trading practices, according to the pro-crypto president’s 2025 financial disclosures.

Trump’s 927-page annual disclosure report, released on Tuesday by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, shows he acquired and sold sizable shares in both crypto-tied companies in the months following the SEC’s early 2025 decisions to dismiss its enforcement actions against them for allegedly failing to comply with securities registration requirements.

Trump reported receiving between $1,001 and $2,500 in Coinbase dividends, as much as $16,000 in capital gains from selling Coinbase shares, $510,808 in validator rewards through a Coinbase staking agreement, and $1,821,628 in validator compensation courtesy of another Coinbase staking agreement.

The White House directed the Washington Examiner to contact the Trump Organization, the president’s privately owned conglomerate, regarding Trump’s financial statements. The Washington Examiner reached out to the Trump Organization for clarification on the timing of Trump’s earnings, particularly when exactly the staking agreements were made with Coinbase and the nature of the dividends.

Those payments were not dated on Trump’s disclosure form because they are treated as aggregated income, or ongoing yield over the past calendar year, rather than distinct payouts.

Dividends, for instance, are portions of company profits paid out regularly to shareholders as compensation for investing in them, though Coinbase does not offer cash dividends. It is unclear why Trump disclosed earning thousands of dollars in Coinbase dividends.

As a result of the Coinbase staking agreements generating a total of $2.3 million in validator rewards, Trump continuously earned passive income, similar to accruing interest on a savings account, by staking ethereum. Proof-of-stake blockchains, such as ethereum, periodically pay crypto holders “validator rewards” in the form of newly issued tokens to help keep the network secure by temporarily locking their crypto as collateral in a process known as staking. In staking agreements, Coinbase acts as an intermediary, handling the technical end of crypto staking in exchange for a commission deducted from the client’s generated rewards.

The capital gains were profits Trump made from the sale of stock for more than the original purchase price. From March 2025 to December 2025, Trump’s investment accounts completed eight sales of Coinbase stock totaling between $334,000 and $760,000 and bought Coinbase stock 15 times valued in the combined range of $310,000 to $875,000.

Trump also invested heavily in Robinhood from March 2025 to November 2025, buying stock in the company 12 times collectively worth between $359,000 and $910,000 and selling a total of $31,000 to $115,000 in shares.

However, his Robinhood investments have not led to significant — or any — profits as of the end of 2025’s reporting period. Trump marked income from his holdings in Robinhood as “None (or less than $201),” the standard category used to denote when an asset produced either no or negligible earnings.

Other than those transactions, Trump only made one purchase each of Coinbase and Robinhood stock, both dated Jan. 29, 2025, before the SEC dropped its inquiries into Coinbase and Robinhood a month later.

Trump’s frequent trading of Coinbase and Robinhood stock came after the SEC dismissed separate cases against the two companies within days of each other in February 2025, which signaled an easing of crypto regulation as promised by Trump.

On Feb. 27, 2025, Coinbase had its SEC case dropped almost two years after investigators charged the company for operating its crypto-trading platform as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency. Since at least 2019, Coinbase allegedly made billions of dollars unlawfully facilitating the buying and selling of crypto asset securities. According to the civil complaint, the SEC accused Coinbase of intertwining its trading services without registering any of those functions with the commission as required by law.

In its announcement of the case’s dismissal, the SEC said it voluntarily abandoned the investigation “[g]iven the pending work of the Crypto Task Force,” the commission’s advisory panel formed under Trump to recommend policy aimed at reshaping the application of U.S. securities law pertaining to cryptocurrency. The task force works, in part, to provide a pathway to registration for digital assets and market intermediaries.

“As a policy matter,” the SEC said it rested its decision on the belief that the dismissal will “facilitate the Commission’s ongoing efforts to reform and renew its regulatory approach to the crypto industry, not on any assessment of the merits of the claims alleged in the action.”

On Feb. 21, 2025, the SEC’s Division of Enforcement told Robinhood that it was closing its yearlong investigation into the company’s crypto arm, Robinhood Crypto, with no plans of pursuing any disciplinary action.

A year earlier, Robinhood Crypto had received a Wells notice from the SEC informing company executives that the commission, based on findings from a preliminary investigation, intended to bring charges against the company related to its cryptocurrency listings.

Robinhood has long argued that most digital-asset transactions are not subject to U.S. securities law and therefore it does not have to register certain crypto assets as securities. “We firmly believe that the assets listed on our platform are not securities,” Dan Gallagher, the chief legal, compliance, and corporate affairs officer of Robinhood Markets, said at the time.

In response to the case’s closure, Robinhood expressed optimism at the possibility of working with the SEC under the Trump administration to advance a “tailored” regulatory environment for digital assets “instead of regulation by enforcement,” and company leadership publicly celebrated the news, with Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev noting that it was “nice to not have to play as much defense” after years of facing aggressive oversight.

On the 2024 campaign trail, Trump strongly embraced crypto, repeatedly promising to make the U.S. market more friendly to the cryptocurrency industry and criticizing what he described as excessive regulations. “The rules will be written by people who love your industry, not hate your industry,” Trump told bitcoin leaders.

When asked by the Washington Examiner about Trump’s personal investments in Robinhood and Coinbase, the Trump White House denied any conflict of interest.

“As President Trump said, he has a lot of assets because he was a massively successful businessman prior to becoming President, which was why he was elected to office in the first place,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said. “The President has implemented policies that have made all Americans wealthier and more prosperous — including cutting taxes, reshoring manufacturing, negotiating fairer trade deals, creating Trump Accounts for children, and more.”

Kelly told the Washington Examiner all of Trump’s assets are held in “fully discretionary accounts managed by independent third-party financial institutions,” adding, “There are no conflicts of interest.”

Trump himself insisted on Wednesday that he does not personally manage his finances or is even “involved” in the advisory process, following criticism over $1.2 billion he made in cryptocurrency dealings last year.

“We have funds that run my money,” Trump said. “I’ve made a lot of money before I became president, and they invest my money, and I don’t talk to them. I never — I don’t even speak to them.”