How much money has Trump made from cryptocurrency? The policy turnaround behind the $1.4 billion income

The annual financial disclosure document released by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics on June 30, 2026 shows that President Trump earned more than $1.4 billion from his cryptocurrency business in 2025. This 900-plus-page document catapults cryptocurrency to the top spot among sources of U.S. presidential income for the first time.

The revenue structure follows a typical “two-engine” pattern. One engine is the licensed revenue from the “OFFICIAL TRUMP, TRUMP.” On the eve of Trump’s return to the White House, he launched a meme coin named after himself, earning approximately $635 million from sales of the coin. The second engine comes from World Liberty Financial— a crypto venture capital firm co-founded by Trump and his three sons. According to Reuters, Trump received nearly $800 million from the company, including more than $520 million in cryptocurrency token sales revenue and more than $250 million in revenue from the sale of business interests.

In addition, the financial document also discloses Trump’s crypto asset holdings: Bitcoin and Ethereum, each worth more than $50,000,000. Taken together, the cryptocurrency business has become Trump’s top money-making tool, accounting for the vast majority of his total actual income received in 2025 of at least $2.2 billion. And in 2024, Trump’s total annual corporate revenue was only about $622 million. Over the course of one year, his crypto business boosted the president’s personal wealth from about $2.3 billion in 2024 to about $6.5 billion to $7 billion in 2026.

What happened between $74 and $1.70

The “Trump coin” went live on the Solana network on January 17, 2025—three days before Trump’s second inauguration. The total supply was 1 billion coins, and entities associated with Trump reportedly held 800 million. The token’s initial offering price was about $1. Within less than 24 hours after listing, its market cap surged to $4.8 billion; then on January 19, it reached an all-time peak, with the price breaking $74.

However, the rally did not last. As of July 3, 2026, according to Gate market data, the TRUMP token price has fallen to around $1.70. From the peak of $74 to $1.7, the decline is 97.7%. Market cap shrank from about $15 billion to about $400 million.

What does this mean? For an investor who put in $1,000 at the peak, their paper value is now only about $22.61. According to data from on-chain analytics platforms, among roughly 1.48 million wallets holding TRUMP, about two-thirds are in a losing position; about 810,000 wallets have accumulated losses of more than $2 billion. Meanwhile, the crypto entities of the Trump family locked in about $2.3 billion in proceeds through token sales, licensing fees, and the sale of equity—while bearing virtually no downside risk.

The logic behind the turnaround from “a scam” to the “crypto capital”

Trump’s attitude toward cryptocurrencies has not always been consistent. In July 2019, in his first in-term tweet about Bitcoin, he wrote: “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. They are not money; their value is highly unstable, and they are baseless.” In 2021, he went even further on Fox Business, saying that Bitcoin “looks like a scam.”

The shift began in 2022. In preparation for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, Trump issued personal-themed NFT collections; 45,000 products sold out within 24 hours. The millions of dollars in this revenue made him realize the crypto community’s ability to mobilize capital. In 2024, at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, he publicly promised to build a “strategic Bitcoin reserve,” and to make the United States the “global crypto capital.”

On January 23, 2025, Trump signed Executive Order No. 14178 titled “Strengthening U.S. Leadership in Digital Financial Technology,” formally establishing a policy direction to support the digital asset industry. Later that year, on March 6, he signed an executive order to establish a “strategic Bitcoin reserve,” incorporating into the reserve about 200,000 Bitcoins that the federal government had confiscated through judicial proceedings. From critics to promoters, Trump’s crypto turnaround was completed with policy implementation—closing the loop.

When the rule-maker becomes the biggest beneficiary

Controversy followed. Critics point out that on the one hand, Trump promotes policies favorable to the crypto industry; on the other hand, his family businesses capture huge amounts of income from it, blurring the line between public power and private interests.

On the legal level, there is a key fact: although U.S. federal conflict-of-interest laws prohibit executive officials from linking public office with private gain, those laws explicitly exclude the president and vice president from their scope, beginning in 1989. Trump therefore argues that his actions are entirely lawful. In a statement, a White House spokesperson said that Trump “acts only in the best interests of the American public,” and that “there is no conflict of interest.”

But the ethical controversy has not been resolved. Don Fox, who previously served as acting director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, said that while the president and vice president are not bound by federal conflict-of-interest laws, “since Watergate, every president has voluntarily held themselves to that standard,” and that Trump broke with that practice. Historian Barbara Perry was blunt: the phenomenon of Trump earning vast wealth while in office is “without precedent in U.S. history.” “Making money hand over fist while in office may not be illegal, but it is unethical.”

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren has called on social media for strict provisions to be added to a cryptocurrency bill that will be submitted to the Senate for consideration, to prevent the president and his family from continuing to profit from it.

The industry’s structural cost of political MEME coins

The “Trump coin” is not an isolated case; it is a landmark example of the emerging category of political MEME coins. From an industry-structure perspective, its trajectory reveals the typical characteristics of this type of asset: narrative-driven rallies, early participants taking profits and exiting, retail investors chasing at the peak, and a price collapse after the narrative fades. The TRUMP token completes this full cycle within six months.

This pattern brings structural costs. Fund manager Ross Gerber noted in February 2026 that MEME coins, including Trump coins, are dragging down the entire crypto market and eroding the trust foundation for digital assets. When a token issued by a sitting president can fall from $74 to $1.7 within months—leading to losses for more than 800,000 wallets—the damage to industry credibility far exceeds the market-cap evaporation of a single asset.

Meanwhile, capital in the market is concentrating on Bitcoin. As of July 2026, Bitcoin’s market cap accounts for 57.88% of the entire crypto market. This “K-shaped divergence”—Bitcoin continuously absorbing institutional capital while MEME coins continue collapsing—may well be the market’s pricing response to the structural issues above.

A proposition with no precedent

What Trump’s $1.4 billion in crypto earnings raises is a proposition with no precedent in U.S. political history: whether a sitting president can simultaneously become the biggest beneficiary of the industry he promotes. The law answers “yes,” but ethics raises a different question.

From an industry perspective, this event raises at least three dimensions worthy of ongoing attention: first, the regulatory gray area when politicians issue coins—if tokens issued by the president himself are not subject to securities laws, whether the regulatory framework has systemic loopholes; second, the ethical boundary of a president’s crypto holdings—whether the transparency of the financial disclosure system is sufficient to constrain the business conduct of a sitting official; and third, investor protection for political MEME coin investors—when more than 800,000 wallets lose money due to a presidential token, whether existing market mechanisms provide adequate pathways for relief.

These issues will not end with the publication of a financial disclosure document. They will continue to unfold across the legislative agenda, regulatory battles, and market evolution.

Summary

In 2025, Trump earned more than $1.4 billion from his cryptocurrency business, mainly from licensing revenue from the “Trump coin” (approximately $635 million) and token sales and equity proceeds from World Liberty Financial (about $800 million). The TRUMP token fell from a peak of $74 to about $1.70 as of July 3, 2026, a drop of 97.7%, leading to losses for more than 800,000 investor wallets. Trump completed a fundamental shift from calling Bitcoin “a scam” in 2019 to signing executive orders supporting the crypto industry after taking office in 2025, but while pushing industry policies, he also personally obtained massive income—triggering widespread ethical controversy over the boundary between public power and private interests. This event raises structural questions that still have no clear answers, including the regulation of coin issuances by political figures, the ethical boundary of presidential holdings, and investor protection.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: How much did Trump earn from his cryptocurrency business in 2025?

According to the annual financial disclosure document released by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics on June 30, 2026, Trump earned more than $1.4 billion from his cryptocurrency business in 2025. This makes him the first sitting U.S. president in history to have cryptocurrency assets as his largest income source.

Q: What is the current price of the “Trump coin”?

As of July 3, 2026, according to Gate market data, the OFFICIAL TRUMP (TRUMP) token is priced at around $1.70. The token reached an all-time peak of about $74 on January 19, 2025, and since then the drop has been 97.7%.

Q: What are the main channels of Trump’s crypto income?

Mainly two channels: first, licensing revenue from the “Trump coin” of about $635 million; second, token sales revenue of more than $520 million from World Liberty Financial and business equity sale revenue of more than $250 million.

Q: How has Trump’s attitude toward cryptocurrencies changed?

In 2019, Trump called Bitcoin “not money” and “baseless,” and in 2021 he called it “a scam.” After 2022, he began to pivot due to the commercial success of NFT projects. During the 2024 campaign, he promised to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve; after taking office in 2025, he signed multiple executive orders supporting the crypto industry.

Q: Is there an issue of conflict of interest if the president issues cryptocurrencies?

Legally, U.S. federal conflict-of-interest law has excluded the president from its scope since 1989. But ethically, critics say that while Trump promotes policies favorable to the crypto industry, he personally obtains massive income, blurring the boundary between public power and private interests. Historians describe this phenomenon as “without precedent in U.S. history.”