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The Trump family has turned cryptocurrency into a gold mine. According to a Reuters investigation, the family of U.S. President Donald J. Trump earned more than $800 million in the first half of 2025 from crypto asset sales, much of it from foreign sources. The report details how the president’s sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., have traveled the globe promoting the family’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, in what experts describe as a lucrative yet ethically questionable enterprise.
In May, Eric Trump was in Dubai, meeting with Chinese businessman Guren “Bobby” Zhou on the sidelines of a cryptocurrency conference. During the discussion, Eric pitched Zhou and his associates on investing at least $20 million in “governance tokens” for World Liberty Financial, a still-developing digital finance platform launched in September 2024. Days later, an entity called Aqua1 Foundation, linked to Zhou and based in the United Arab Emirates, announced it would buy $100 million worth of the tokens — the largest known single purchase at that time. Zhou, who remains under investigation in Britain for money laundering, did not respond to questions from Reuters, though a company affiliated with Aqua1 described the deal as a “commercial decision” aligned with its digital-asset goals.
The Dubai meeting was just one stop in a high-stakes international investment tour by the Trump brothers. In Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, they have promoted the family’s crypto initiatives while tying them to Trump Organization projects. Analysts told Reuters that foreign investors have been drawn not just by the potential of the tokens but by the implicit power of proximity to the U.S. president. Ethics experts have warned that the overlap between the president’s public role and his family’s private gains represents a conflict of interest unprecedented in American politics.
Reuters found that more than 90% of the Trump Organization’s $864 million income during the first half of 2025 came from crypto ventures — including $463 million from sales of World Liberty tokens and $336 million from a Trump-themed meme coin, $TRUMP. By contrast, traditional businesses such as golf courses and branding deals brought in only $56 million combined. Carter Davis, a finance professor at Ohio State University, told Reuters that the family’s pivot to crypto marks “a massive shift,” while other analysts described the scale of foreign investment as “remarkable.”
World Liberty Financial, which has yet to deliver on its promises of a full peer-to-peer financial platform, promotes its tokens as offering “governance rights.” Critics, however, say the project is light on substance, its value sustained mainly by the Trump name. Despite volatility in token prices and skepticism from experts, the family’s crypto income is still growing rapidly. One major deal in August saw blockchain firm Alt5 Sigma invest $750 million to acquire 7.5% of all World Liberty tokens — a transaction that brought the Trumps an estimated $500 million.
The Reuters investigation also highlights the foreign dimension of the Trumps’ crypto empire. A review of blockchain data showed that most major holders of World Liberty tokens are overseas entities. Among them are investors with controversial backgrounds, including Justin Sun, a Hong Kong-based crypto billionaire previously charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with fraud. Reuters reported that the SEC paused its case against Sun shortly after Trump’s return to the White House.
Further controversy arose from a $2 billion deal involving the Trump-backed stablecoin USD1, issued through World Liberty and used by Abu Dhabi’s MGX investment company to buy equity in Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange. Because MGX is state-controlled, Democratic senators have urged an ethics probe into whether the deal violates the U.S. Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, which bars officeholders from accepting money from foreign governments.
Despite growing scrutiny, the Trump family continues to profit handsomely. The World Liberty venture and its affiliated coins have added billions in “on-paper” value to their holdings. Ethics experts told Reuters that while these deals may not technically break the law, they expose the blurred line between presidential power and private profit. As one expert put it, “It’s legal — but unethical.”
The Trump Organization and World Liberty Financial declined to answer detailed questions from Reuters. In a letter, the company’s lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, dismissed the findings as “inaccurate and misleading.” Nevertheless, with the family’s digital fortune expanding and foreign capital still flowing in, the Trump crypto empire shows no sign of slowing down — even as questions mount about where business ends and politics begins.
