According to a government report, President Donald Trump earned about 1.2 billion dollars i.e. more than Rs 11 thousand crore from his crypto business last year. They made profits even when their investors suffered losses. When he took the oath of office, these new businesses were just startups, but now their earnings exceed his huge property portfolio that he had taken decades to build. The reason behind their rapid growth was the action taken by billionaire investors and Trump himself by which he stopped the government action on this industry.
According to the required annual information report given to the 'Office of Government Ethics', Trump received more than $500 million from his 'World Liberty Financial' business by selling new crypto products (which also include "governance tokens"). The report also revealed that another crypto business, 'CIC Digital LLC', earned more than $600 million by selling commemorative "meme" coins bearing his face. Since the sale, the prices of both these tokens and coins have fallen drastically. Trump also made millions of dollars last year by selling Trump-branded Bibles, sneakers and other trinkets, an unprecedented move for the presidency. The sale of Trump-branded watches alone brought in $4.7 million.
The 927-page disclosure form presents a clear, though incomplete, picture of the huge increase in the President's wealth. The increase since he took office in January last year has been driven by a network of business interests – many of which have benefited from policy decisions of Trump's own administration. Trump says his sons handle his finances, but this arrangement ignores conflict-of-interest rules put in place by previous presidents. Forbes estimates Trump's net worth at $6 billion, up from $2.3 billion in 2024.
Trump's business is also expanding abroad. The rise of crypto relative to Trump's property is particularly noteworthy because he first came to power by boasting about the successes of his property. This is also noteworthy because their main business also grew rapidly last year. Trump earned millions of dollars in fees from several new hotel, resort and condo deals abroad, the largest property expansion in a century since his family started the business.
Many of these countries were negotiating with America on tariffs, military aid and other important matters. Trump's business earned $10.4 million from a property in the United Arab Emirates. The President's company received $9 million from a property being built by a real estate developer close to the royal family in Saudi Arabia. Apart from this, he received $5 million each from properties in Bucharest (Romania) and Qatar.
The earnings of his famous property 'Mar-a-Lago' in Florida also increased tremendously last year. Trump earned $77 million from this property. This is 50 percent more than last year, when he was just a common citizen. In the new term, heads of state and businessmen started coming here in large numbers.
The disclosure report does not provide profit figures but only revenue (gross earnings), so it is difficult to find out how much they are actually earning. Trump has now become a crypto man worth billions of dollars. After taking office last year, Trump reversed the Biden administration's tough stance toward the crypto industry and implemented policies beneficial to the industry, but regulators still had some concerns. Before Trump's World Liberty started selling “governance tokens,” he issued a warning about this new type of crypto asset. He had said that unlike stocks, these tokens do not give any ownership rights in the issuing company, but give voting rights on some corporate policies and it is difficult to estimate their value.
Meanwhile, investors have seen the price of their meme coins fall drastically. Just a few days after its launch in January 2025, its price had increased to more than $74, but now it is being sold for just $1.68. Also, the price of World Liberty Token has fallen by 80 percent since trading began in September. The White House says that Trump works only in the public interest. The White House has repeatedly said that Trump has handed over his business to a trust managed by his sons, there is no conflict of interest and he works only in the interest of the country. Trump's main company, 'Trump Organization', has said that his deals abroad were with private companies, not with governments. Still, it's hard to know what's actually private in countries with dictators, royal families and one-party governments.
In the case of a new Trump resort in Vietnam, reports show that Trump received $5 million last year. This happened when the ruling Communist Party sent its deputy prime minister to approve the deal and, according to 'The New York Times', removed farmers from their land to make way for construction. It is almost impossible to know whether these deals played any role in changing America's policies according to the wishes of those countries, but those countries got what they wanted. Vietnam got relief from tariffs. Qatar got such advanced American technology which was not available to it earlier and Saudi Arabia got the American fighter jets which it had wanted for years.
