8 hours ago
Key takeaways
Reuters estimates Trump-linked ventures earned $802 cardinal successful crypto successful aboriginal 2025.
Income came from WLFI tokens, the TRUMP coin and USD1 stablecoin yields.
Alt5 Sigma’s woody and overseas buyers helped crook token worth into cash.
As US crypto enforcement eased, experts noted imaginable struggle concerns.
In the archetypal fractional of 2025, Trump-linked ventures booked astir $802 cardinal successful crypto income, chiefly from World Liberty Financial (WLFI) token income and the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin, dwarfing gross from golf, licensing and existent estate.
Reuters’ probe and methodology papers item wherever the currency came from and however it was tallied. This usher explains the mechanics, the buyers and the argumentation discourse without the hype.
What is World Liberty Financial?
WLFI launched successful precocious 2024 arsenic a token-centric task tied to the Trump family. Its governance token, WLFI, offers constricted holder rights compared with accepted decentralized concern (DeFi) governance models. The company’s lawyer argues that the token has “real utility.”
The halfway monetization exemplary is straightforward. A Trump Organization affiliate is entitled to 75% of token-sale gross aft expenses, according to WLFI’s “Gold Paper.” Reuters utilized this papers arsenic the ground for its income model.
In the archetypal fractional of 2025, Reuters estimates that WLFI token income were the azygous largest currency contributor. They accounted for the bulk of the family’s crypto windfall.
The Alt5 Sigma deal
In August 2025, WLFI marked a Nasdaq woody successful which Alt5 Sigma raised hundreds of millions of dollars to acquisition WLFI tokens. The determination provided a large request catalyst and converted a information of on-paper worth into realized currency for Trump-controlled entities.
Separate reporting successful August outlined a broader program for a $1.5-billion WLFI “treasury” strategy linked to Alt5. The program aimed to clasp a important information of the token supply, details that assistance explicate the standard of flows into WLFI.
How the TRUMP memecoin generated cash
The TRUMP coin launched connected Jan. 17, 2025, and its creators earned a stock of the trading fees from Meteora, the speech wherever it archetypal traded. Within 2 weeks, onchain forensics firms cited by Reuters estimated betwixt $86 cardinal and $100 cardinal successful fees, mostly connected Meteora.
In its investigation of the archetypal fractional of 2025, the outlet modeled astir $672 cardinal successful coin income and, utilizing a blimpish 50% stock assumption, attributed astir $336 cardinal to Trump-linked interests. The methodology acknowledges uncertainty due to the fact that ownership and interest splits are not afloat disclosed.
Who bought the tokens?
Most WLFI buyers are pseudonymous wallet addresses, but the probe identified respective high-profile participants and concentrated overseas demand. The probe highlights the Aqua1 Foundation’s $100-million WLFI acquisition and reports that Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. participated successful a planetary capitalist roadshow promoting the token.
The reappraisal besides notes that identifiable large buyers see overseas investors. While attribution remains probabilistic, overseas information among ample WLFI holders appears significant.
The USD1 stablecoin (and its involvement stream)
WLFI besides promotes USD1, a dollar-pegged stablecoin backed by reserves successful currency and US Treasurys, with custody handled by BitGo.
Reuters reports that the reserves backing USD1 make an estimated $80 cardinal yearly involvement tally complaint astatine prevailing yields and notes that a information of that involvement accrues to a institution 38%-owned by the Trump Organization, though the existent realized magnitude for 2025 remains unspecified.
In May 2025, Abu Dhabi-backed MGX announced a $2-billion concern successful Binance, which, according to reports and nationalist statements by WLFI, was acceptable to beryllium settled utilizing USD1. The woody stands arsenic a marquee illustration of however WLFI’s stablecoin is positioned to facilitate precise ample transactions.
How Reuters got to “$802 million”
Because overmuch of the Trump concern empire is private, Reuters combined statesmanlike disclosures, spot records, court-released financials and onchain commercialized data. It past applied explicit assumptions, specified arsenic WLFI’s 75% gross stock for WLFI token income and a 50% stock connected TRUMP, which were reviewed by academics and certified nationalist accountants.
The outlet’s decision was that astir $802 cardinal of the Trump family’s income successful the archetypal fractional of 2025 came from crypto ventures, compared with conscionable $62 cardinal from their accepted businesses.
Did you know? WLFI disputes parts of Reuters’ analysis, arguing that its gross exemplary was oversimplified, wallet information misinterpreted and the project’s real-world inferior overlooked.
The argumentation backdrop (and the struggle question)
Since January 2025, the US enforcement posture toward crypto has shifted. The Justice Department disbanded its National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team and narrowed its priorities, portion the US Securities and Exchange Commission dropped oregon paused respective high-profile cases, including its question to disregard Coinbase and the termination of actions against different large firms.
Ethics experts told Reuters that a sitting president overseeing crypto argumentation portion his household earns important crypto income presents a caller struggle of interest, adjacent if it is not unlawful.
The White House and institution representatives person denied immoderate wrongdoing.
Findings and broader context
In short, what appears to beryllium an $800-million “gold rush” is, beneath the surface, a blend of brand-driven token sales, fee-rich memecoin mechanics, a high-velocity treasury woody and a yield-bearing stablecoin.
The totals are drawn from documented splits and modeled flows. The controversy, however, centers connected who the buyers were, however transparent the ventures remain, and however US argumentation shifted arsenic the wealth flowed in. For anyone tracking crypto politics, this communicative present serves arsenic a unrecorded lawsuit survey successful incentives, disclosure and governance risk.
This nonfiction does not incorporate concern proposal oregon recommendations. Every concern and trading determination involves risk, and readers should behaviour their ain probe erstwhile making a decision.
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