Trump made over €1 billion from crypto in first year back in office
The White House submitted a 927-page financial disclosure to the US Office of Government Ethics on Tuesday, offering the fullest picture yet of how US President Donald Trump's fortune has grown since he returned to office in January 2025.
Barely established when he was sworn in, Trump's crypto businesses now generate more revenue than large parts of the property empire he spent decades assembling with his family, earning the US president more than $1.2 billion (€1.05bn) last year.
Two ventures account for the bulk of the crypto windfall.
World Liberty Financial, the firm launched in 2024 by Trump's sons and business partners, brought in more than $500 million (€438mn) from selling new crypto products, among them so-called governance tokens, which grant holders voting rights in certain company decisions but no ownership stake.
A separate business tied to the $TRUMP "meme" coin, a cryptocurrency bearing the US president's face and name, generated a further $635 million (€557mn) from token sales.
Trump's crypto activities appear to be a major driver of the near tripling of his personal fortune, which Forbes estimates rose from $2.3 billion (€2bn) to $6.5 billion (€5.7bn) between 2024 and 2026.
For many buyers, the story has been far less lucrative.
The $TRUMP coin, which briefly traded above $74 in the days after its launch, has since collapsed to under $2, while World Liberty's tokens have shed around 80% of their value since they began trading last September.
Since the disclosure lists only revenue and not profit, the true scale of Trump's personal gains cannot be known. However, the filing shows that the US president and his family collected fees and royalties up front, while many investors have seen the value of their holdings fall sharply.
Among those investors was Chinese-born crypto billionaire Justin Sun, who poured $75 million (€65.7mn) into the governance tokens and $200 million (€175.3mn) into both $TRUMP and $MELANIA meme coins.
A US fraud case against him was later paused before being resolved with a $10 million (€8.7mn) settlement. Sun has denied any connection between his spending and the outcome of his legal troubles.
After the release of the filing, the White House also rejected suggestions of any ethical concerns.
"Neither the President nor his family has ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest," Principal Deputy US Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to AFP.
Kelly said US President Donald Trump had "proudly made the United States the crypto capital of the world."
"All actions by President Trump and his administration are taken in the best interest of the American people, and any so-called 'reporters' pushing otherwise are recycling the same, tired, false narrative that Democrats and the legacy media have been pushing for a decade," Kelly added.
The filing also details an aggressive international expansion, with new hotel, resort and condominium agreements generating millions of dollars in countries that were negotiating with Washington over trade and security at the same time.
A development in the United Arab Emirates earned the Trump business around $10.4 million (€9.1mn) last year, one in Saudi Arabia roughly $9 million (€7.9mn), and projects in Qatar, Romania and Vietnam were $5 million (€4.3mn) apiece.
Closer to home, the US president's established businesses boomed alongside all the new ventures.
Mar-a-Lago, Trump's private club in Florida, generated around $77 million (€67.5mn), a jump of roughly 50% on the previous year, as heads of state and executives flocked to the property during his new term.
The disclosure also reveals the wide range of ways the Trump brand is now monetised.
The US president earned millions from a sprawling range of branded goods, from sneakers and watches to bumper stickers, with Trump-branded watches alone bringing in $4.7 million (€4.1mn), and more than $200,000 (€175,300) coming from the "God Bless the USA" Bible, a branded edition promoted with country singer Lee Greenwood.
Branded merchandise of this kind, sold by a sitting US president, has no precedent.
A 1978 law requires the president and vice president of the United States to declare their income as well as their assets.
First Lady Melania Trump's income is also set out in her husband's financial disclosure, including more than $10 million (€8.7mn) tied to a biographical Amazon documentary and over $500,000 (€438,250) from her memoir.
For comparison, US Vice President JD Vance reported between $1 million (€876,500) and $5 million (€4.4mn) in royalties from his 2016 book "Hillbilly Elegy".
Critics have long argued that such arrangements blur the line between public office and private profit. The White House rejects the charge outright.