The business empire of Donald Trump and his family has undergone a dramatic transformation — driven less by real-estate deals and more by a sprawling cryptocurrency venture that has already generated hundreds of millions of dollars in income. At the centre is World Liberty Financial (WLF), a crypto business co-founded by Trump’s sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr..
From a pitch in Dubai to token sales
During a meeting in Dubai in May this year, Eric Trump addressed Chinese and other international business associates at a cryptocurrency conference. He outlined his complaints with traditional banks, evoked his father’s battles with financiers and then made the offer: “Buy at least $20 million of ‘governance tokens’ in the Trump family’s crypto business.” According to news agency Reuters, the promise was that investors would gain a role in what would become “the future of finance in America”. For some participants in that gathering, the technology on show appeared “rudimentary”, since at the time World Liberty had yet to unveil the platform its paper had promised. Nevertheless, the token sales caught fire. On June 26, an entity known as Aqua1 Foundation (reportedly based in the United Arab Emirates) announced it would purchase $100 million of WLF tokens — the largest known single purchase at the time.
A massive income boost
In the first half of 2025, the Trump family’s crypto ventures pulled in an astonishing sum. According to Reuters’s analysis, the income from crypto business for the family’s business entity, the Trump Organization, reached roughly $802 million, while traditional business activities such as real-estate licensing and resorts generated about $62 million in the same period. Of that crypto sum, more than $463 million came from sales of WLF’s governance token (ticker WLFI). The family also made about $336 million from a Trump-branded meme coin project (ticker $TRUMP). Carter Davis, an assistant professor of finance who reviewed the data, described it as “a massive pivot” for the Trump family business.
What’s being sold — and to whom
The tokens offered by World Liberty claim to give holders governance rights. But analysts note the rights are limited compared with other decentralised finance projects: holders cannot vote themselves major shares of profit, for example. Most of the large purchases came from overseas investors. In a sample of the 50 largest wallets holding WLFI tokens as of mid-September, 36 wallets (worth about $804 million) were likely linked to foreign buyers. Only a handful were routed to US investors. Using the Trump brand has clearly provided a boost. One investor told Reuters he invested mainly on the basis that “the president’s sons” were behind the project.
Ethical and regulatory questions
The speed and scale of the Trump family’s crypto income have triggered concern among ethics experts. One quote summarises the view: Furthermore, the US regulatory landscape has been shifting in recent months in ways that favour crypto. For example the government agency overseeing ethics disclosures has faced criticism and the SEC’s approach to enforcement has evolved.
Why the business model matters
What sets this venture apart is that the structure channels a vast share of revenue to the Trump family, regardless of technological performance or market uptake. The token sale itself has become the revenue engine. One finance professor put it: “Even if you go through and you do the most conservative estimate… it’s pretty wild that you end up with such a huge fraction of the income coming from crypto.” This means that the financial risk — and reward — for the family is very different from their traditional real-estate business, where revenue tends to depend on leases, occupancy and long development cycles. Token sales bring lump-sum cash in, ahead of any product launch.
