Donald Trump and his family made approximately $5 billion on Monday when WLFI, the token associated with their crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, began trading on public markets. But World Liberty is far from the only crypto-based money-making business the president has going on right now. Indeed, it seems that on any given day, the leader of the free world—who once called Bitcoin a “scam” but is now “a big crypto fan” who wants to build a “strategic bitcoin reserve”*—is finding new opportunities to enrich himself through crypto dealings.
Most recently, that’s involved:
The WLFI launch
The biggest new source of wealth for Trump and his relatives, WLFI started trading on Labor Day, and in the process, netted Trump and his children an estimated $5 billion on paper. (Trump’s three sons—Don Jr., Eric, and Barron Trump—are “cofounders” of World Liberty—while the president is listed on its website as “cofounder emeritus,” because maintaining the appearance of not using the presidency to get rich is important to the family.) According to a public financial disclosure report, Trump owned 15.75 billion WLFI tokens by the end of 2024, and while he and his cofounders cannot currently sell them, they are now one of the biggest assets in his portfolio, worth far more, per The New York Times, than his real estate holdings.
Crypto.com partnership
The Devin Nunes–led Trump Media & Technology Group— the parent company of Truth Social—said last week that it is starting a new company called Trump Media Group CRO Strategy, which will buy and hold CRO, a token developed by Crypto.com. The venture said it will raise approximately $6.4 billion in order to purchase the tokens, with $1 billion in tokens coming from Crypto.com and a $5 billion line of credit from an affiliate of New Jersey financial firm Yorkville Acquisition Corp. The move follows TMTG’s July acquisition of $2 billion in Bitcoin and Bitcoin-related securities. TMTG also recently filed paperwork with the SEC to launch a bunch of crypto exchange-traded funds.
GENIUS Act
In July, Trump signed into law the GENIUS Act, which makes it easier for banks and other financial entities to issue digital currencies known as stablecoins. During the signing at the White House, he told reporters: “I pledged that we would bring back American liberty and leadership and make the United States the crypto capital of the world. And that’s what we’ve done under the Trump administration.” (Critics were less enthused about the new law, with Carla Sanchez-Adams, senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, saying it would “benefit only crypto-billionaires and large corporate actors while exposing ordinary consumers to incredible risk with no protection.”)
CLARITY Act
Passed by the House in July, the Senate is reportedly expected to take up the crypto regulations bill later this month. If passed and signed by Trump, the law would give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission authority over “digital commodities.” Critics worry it will “lead to far weaker policing of what they consider to be a dangerous segment of the financial sector.” Which means a certain crypto president probably loves it.
*Which at least one economist has said “makes no sense.”
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