The Trump family’s newest money engine is not real estate, hotels, or golf courses. It is crypto. And the money has been flowing fast, according to a Reuters “internal investigation.”
In the first half of this year alone, the Trump Organization pulled in $864 million, up from $51 million the year before. More than 90% of that came from crypto ventures tied to the family.
The core piece is World Liberty Financial, a project that launched in September 2024 but still has not produced the peer‑to‑peer finance platform it promised.
Even without a finished system, token sales and related ventures have already pushed the family’s crypto earnings toward $1 billion.
A key moment came in May, when Eric Trump traveled to Dubai to meet potential backers. On the sidelines of a crypto conference, he met with Guren “Bobby” Zhou, a Chinese businessman.
Eric pushed the idea that traditional banks are inefficient and that World Liberty would represent the “future of finance” in America.
The pitch required a minimum $20 million investment in WLFI governance tokens. People in the room later described the underlying technology as “rudimentary.” At that time, the business had no working platform. It still does not.
Foreign buyers increase token volume
Despite that, the pitch landed. On June 26, a group called Aqua1 Foundation, claiming ties to the United Arab Emirates, agreed to buy $100 million worth of WLFI tokens. It was the largest purchase of the token at that time.
Zhou, who was part of the Dubai meeting, has since been linked in U.K. records to a money laundering investigation and has been involved in civil court judgments in China over unpaid loans totaling 19.4 million yuan.
One of the legal filings stated that he was tried in absentia after failing to appear.
Critics say the attraction for some buyers is less about technology. “These people are not pouring money into coffers of the Trump family business because of the brothers’ acumen. They are doing it because they want freedom from legal constraints and impunity that only the president can deliver,” said Kathleen Clark, a law professor and government ethics specialist.
In addition to Aqua1, a Nasdaq‑listed blockchain services company called Alt5 Sigma raised $750 million to buy 7.5% of all WLFI tokens before they were allowed to trade.
Corporate filings indicate nearly all of that money went directly to buy tokens from World Liberty. By the math in those filings, the Trumps gained around $500 million from that single move.
Token sales reshape family income
Reuters’ examination of wallet data found that 36 of the 50 largest WLFI token wallets are likely controlled by overseas buyers, holding around $804 million in tokens.
Only four were linked to U.S. investors. One of those U.S. wallets, holding $781 million, belonged to Alt5 Sigma.
Another wallet worth $35 million belonged to a World Liberty security adviser. The remaining 10 wallets could not be identified as foreign or domestic.
From January to June, $463 million of the Trump crypto cash came from WLFI token sales. Another $336 million came from sales of the $TRUMP meme coin. Estimates around the meme coin carry more uncertainty due to limited transparency.
World Liberty promotes future products, including a crypto deposit app, a borrowing service, and a stablecoin called USD1, which is issued by another company that gives World Liberty a share of profits.
But compared to market‑leading stablecoins, USD1’s circulation remains small. WLFI token holders can vote on limited governance issues, but they cannot distribute profits to themselves, which sets the platform apart from others in the same sector.
When WLFI began exchange trading on September 1, the price rose from $0.31 to $0.46 before dropping about 65% within three days. It currently trades at about $0.14. Still, token sales continue. And the money continues to flow.
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