Parsing the Trumps’ crypto profits, investors’ losses

For years, Donald J. Trump has followed a simple playbook for making money: He lent his marquee name to a product, a company or a real estate project, often invested little to no money in it, touted it heavily, and waited for the cash to pour in. Since mid-2024, when he was campaigning for what would become his second presidential term, Trump and his family have applied the same template to the freewheeling world of cryptocurrency – with spectacular results.

Reuters set out to determine just how much money the Trumps have made from their four main crypto projects, how much of their own cash they staked on those projects, and how outside investors in those projects have fared.

The conclusion: the Trump family has made $2.3 billion from crypto with little-to-no downside risk, while other investors have lost $2.3 billion, including paper losses, as of the end of April.

To reach that result, Reuters built on its earlier work on the Trumps’ crypto money-making machine, examining thousands of pages of corporate filings and statements and interviewing more than a dozen crypto consultants and academics and 27 individual investors.

Startup costs for the Trumps’ largest crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, and the $TRUMP meme coin project probably came in at less than $1 million – and possibly much less – to cover developing code, building a website and legal expenses, according to two professors of finance, one law professor and four industry consultants. “It’s just small amounts,” said Seoyoung Kim, associate professor of finance at Santa Clara University, adding that the outlay could have been nothing if developers and advisers were paid in tokens rather than cash.

Two Nasdaq-listed crypto companies have earned the Trumps millions: ALT5 Sigma, now named AI Financial Corp., and American Bitcoin. For those two entities, Reuters examined corporate filings and found that where Trump share ownership was reported, the interests involved had been acquired at no monetary cost. There was no evidence that the Trumps injected cash into the companies. The analysis was reviewed by a professor of accounting, a professor of finance and an equities analyst.

ALT5 Sigma, American Bitcoin, the $TRUMP meme project and World Liberty Financial did not respond to Reuters’ questions about whether or how much the Trumps invested in the respective ventures. President Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump also did not respond to the same questions.

The Trumps’ crypto earnings have come almost entirely from selling tokens.

World Liberty Financial has disclosed raising $1.4 billion by selling 30 billion of its governance tokens, yielding about $987 million for the Trumps, taking into account their 75% cut of World Liberty token sales and expenses. That $987 million includes the Trump family’s cut of World Liberty’s direct sales of tokens to investors, as well as $538 million under a deal in which World Liberty sold tokens to the publicly listed, Trump-backed crypto treasury company ALT5 Sigma.

But Reuters found that the Trumps’ earnings from World Liberty token sales are probably much more than $987 million. In an October 2025 filing to comply with European regulations on crypto sales, World Liberty disclosed holding 3 billion fewer tokens than it had in public statements the prior month. In a September online post, World Liberty said it set that number of tokens aside to ensure market demand could be met, but it did not disclose selling the tokens.

Based on the company’s statement and a review of crypto industry practices, two academics and two crypto consultants said the 3 billion tokens were probably sold. Using a weighted average of token prices during the period – the best estimate of revenue, academics said – Reuters calculated that, if sold, those tokens would have generated at least $460 million for the Trump family.

“The token sale is large. It appears that the insiders were dumping,” Campbell Harvey, professor of finance at Duke University, who has taught courses on crypto ventures, said of the apparent sale of the additional 3 billion tokens. “To sell so early in the life of the project as World Liberty has is unusual,” Harvey added.

Those likely sales bring the Trumps’ total earnings from World Liberty token sales to more than $1.4 billion, the largest piece of the $2.3 billion the family has made from crypto.

Asked about the expert review, Reuters’ calculations concerning the 3 billion additional tokens, and the Trumps’ overall earnings, World Liberty Financial spokesman David Wachsman said: “WLFI does not validate third-party methodologies for valuing governance tokens or estimating aggregate investor positions.”

The $TRUMP meme coin project doesn’t disclose revenue. Reuters used blockchain data to trace gains from coin sales via online marketplaces and to identify movements of coins to crypto exchanges. Movement of $TRUMP coins to the exchanges indicates they were probably being sold, according to two professors of finance, a professor of law, a professor of computing and a leading industry crypto analyst. Based on the weighted average of prices over the periods when the coins were moved to exchanges, Reuters calculated that if such moves represented sales, they raised more than $880 million. Combined with sales through other channels, total revenue was about $1.2 billion.

Reuters estimated the Trumps received a half-share of profits from the $TRUMP venture, or about $616 million. Several experts said the Trumps could have received more, given the project’s deep reliance on the Trumps to market the coin and the Trumps’ arrangement with World Liberty that gives them 75% of token revenue, as disclosed in its prospectus document and the project’s website.

The $TRUMP meme project did not respond to requests for comment. Trump family members did not respond to requests for comment on Reuters’ estimates of their income from the meme coin.

Nasdaq-listed ALT5 Sigma, transformed into a crypto acquisition vehicle, partnered with World Liberty Financial to buy $717 million worth of World Liberty tokens. That purchase sent more than $500 million to the Trump family, based on the Trumps’ arrangement with World Liberty Financial.

The Trump brothers each received stakes in American Bitcoin at no cost when that bitcoin treasury and mining company gained a Nasdaq listing in 2025, Reuters’ analysis found. Eric Trump’s stake was worth over $70 million at the end of April; the value of Donald Trump Jr.’s stake has not been disclosed. The Trumps’ partner in the venture, Hut 8 Corp, bought $25 million of World Liberty tokens soon after the company’s launch, sending $19 million to the Trump family.

Losses for those who invested in Trump ventures were estimated by establishing the amounts initial buyers paid for the $TRUMP meme coin and World Liberty tokens and for new shares in ALT5 Sigma and American Bitcoin. Those amounts were compared to the current market values of the tokens and shares. Two accounting professors interviewed by Reuters and a professor of law agreed with this methodology.

To tally results for investors in World Liberty tokens, Reuters used the published prices paid for 30 billion of the tokens and a weighted average market price for the additional 3 billion tokens whose sale was not confirmed.

Early buyers, who paid either 1.5 cents or 5 cents per token, made a profit on tokens they have sold since trading began on crypto exchanges, but they are prohibited from selling 80% of their holdings. Regarding those locked tokens, Nathan Goldman, a professor of accounting at North Carolina State University who has studied and taught about cryptocurrency taxation, said accounting rules place a current value of zero on such non-transferable assets. Mark Zyla, a CFA and founder of an Austin, Texas-based valuation and dispute analysis consultancy firm, agreed. Reuters used that valuation in calculating early investors’ net gains or losses on World Liberty tokens.

Those who bought their tokens after exchange trading began have also racked up losses as the token price has fallen. All told, losses for investors in World Liberty tokens total about $674 million.

Wachsman, the World Liberty spokesman, said the governance tokens are “not an investment product.” He also said it was inaccurate for Reuters, in calculating gains and losses on World Liberty tokens, to “blur the lines between realized and unrealized losses.”

The Trump meme coin project didn’t publish revenue from coin sales, so Reuters used blockchain data and weighted market prices to determine sales volumes and prices paid for the coins, an approach supported by the experts. Reuters could not confirm that all coins the project made available for sale had been sold, so Reuters didn’t include coins whose status could not be identified. Hence, Reuters’ figures may underestimate both gains for the Trumps and losses for buyers.

Analysis by blockchain analytics firms including Chainalysis found that a small number of large traders who were early buyers and sellers of $TRUMP made big profits, but that hundreds of thousands of smaller retail buyers lost money. In total, buyers spent at least $1.2 billion on $TRUMP at prices as high as $75.35 according to Reuters’ calculations. Based on the April 30 price of $2.38, those coins were worth $521 million, representing a loss of more than $700 million for buyers.

Reuters’ calculations of World Liberty and $TRUMP token sales included only sales that could be identified with confidence. They do not include hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of tokens – apart from the 3 billion revealed by the European Union filing – that blockchain records show the two ventures moved from their own crypto wallets into the wallets of traders or other investors. Reuters was not able to determine whether instead of being sold they may have been used for other purposes such as collateral, exchange liquidity pools or customer incentives.

ALT5 Sigma and American Bitcoin disclosed in filings the number of shares they sold and the money they raised to the end of March 2026. Since August 11, 2025, the ALT5 share price has plummeted from above $9 to 75 cents at the end of April – with investors losing about $675 million. Since September, the American Bitcoin share price has dropped from $11 to $1.15 at the end of April – leaving investors down more than $200 million.