Donald Trump once dismissed cryptocurrencies as a “scam”. Today, his family sits at the centre of a crypto empire that has generated an estimated $2.3 billion for the Trump family. The other side of the story is far less glamorous: more than a million investors have collectively lost roughly the same amount, reported news agency Reuters.
The Reuters investigation, which analysed blockchain records, corporate disclosures, regulatory filings and interviews with more than a dozen crypto and accounting experts, found a striking divide between the fortunes of the Trump family and those of ordinary investors who backed their crypto ventures.
From a decentralised finance project and a meme coin to publicly listed crypto businesses, the Trump family’s ventures followed a pattern, Reuters reported: the family gained billions through token sales, ownership stakes and licencing agreements, while many investors were left holding assets that lost much of their value.
Trump’s return to the White House in 2025 coincided with a dramatic shift in his position on digital assets.
Having once criticised Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Trump embraced the sector during his election campaign and promised to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet”. That political support, combined with his global brand, helped attract millions of dollars from supporters and speculative investors into Trump-linked crypto projects.
The biggest beneficiary was World Liberty Financial, a decentralised finance platform backed by Trump and his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.
According to the report, the Trump family made between $1.4 billion and $1.6 billion from the project. The venture sold WLFI governance tokens to investors, but those tokens did not give holders a share of company profits.
The value of the investment for many buyers dropped significantly, and many investors remained unable to sell their holdings because a large portion of tokens were locked and could not be freely traded.
Another major chapter in the Trump family’s crypto journey was the launch of the $TRUMP meme coin.
The token witnessed an explosive rise as investors rushed to buy a cryptocurrency carrying the US President’s name. Its market value surged as supporters and traders hoped to benefit from Trump’s popularity and his support for crypto.
However, the excitement did not last.
As per th report the Trump family and associated entities generated more than $600 million from the venture, while many investors suffered sharp losses as the value of the coin collapsed from its peak.
Reuters interviewed several investors who were left disappointed. One investor, a software engineer from California, invested around $2,000 after seeing promotions linked to Trump. Her holdings later fell to less than $120.
The report found that many investors were not simply buying a cryptocurrency; they were buying into the Trump brand.
Some believed Trump’s return to power and his pro-crypto stance would help these projects succeed. Others hoped the connection with a sitting US President would give the investments a level of credibility that ordinary crypto projects lacked.
However, the family often had limited financial risk in the ventures. Reuters reported that the Trump organisation benefited through ownership structures, licencing arrangements and token sales, allowing it to earn significant income regardless of how the assets performed after investors purchased them.
The Trump crypto ecosystem also extended beyond digital tokens.
Companies such as American Bitcoin and ALT5 Sigma, later renamed AI Financial Corp, were promoted as ways for investors to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency boom.
According to Reuters, the companies’ stock prices later fell sharply, wiping out hundreds of millions of dollars in investor wealth, even as the Trump family benefited from their commercial arrangements.
Despite the enormous losses suffered by investors, Reuters reported that there is no evidence that Trump used his presidential powers in exchange for personal financial benefits from the crypto ventures.
Legal and ethics experts told Reuters that the businesses appear to operate within existing laws, although they raised concerns about the unusual overlap between the financial interests of a sitting US President’s family and a rapidly expanding crypto business.
Former US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross defended the investments in comments to Reuters, saying investors who buy speculative assets should understand the risks involved.
“If people are going to buy something that’s speculative, they ought to be aware there’s a risk,” Ross said.
The Reuters investigation portrays a new model of celebrity-backed cryptocurrency businesses, where the creators and promoters can earn large amounts of money through early ownership, token sales and commercial agreements, while later investors bear the risk of market swings.
For the Trump family, the crypto push has become one of its most profitable business ventures. For many ordinary investors who bought into the dream of a Trump-backed digital fortune, the outcome has been very different.
The numbers tell the story: an estimated $2.3 billion gained by the family, and roughly $2.3 billion lost by the investors who followed them.