Bitcoin in White House: How the Trumps build a crypto empire

Tokens, mining, and the Trump crypto empire

Trump’s relationship with crypto has been a long journey. In his first term (2017–2021), he called Bitcoin a “scam” and rejected the very idea of decentralized currencies.

But by the 2024 election campaign, his stance had completely flipped. Against the backdrop of then-President Joe Biden’s hardline policies, Trump embraced digital assets, quickly winning over an army of supporters in the crypto community. He found strong allies among enthusiasts unofficially led by Elon Musk and “crypto king” David Sacks. Even before Trump’s re-election, the community regularly launched meme coins in his honor—many of them little more than classic pump-and-dump schemes.

The real frenzy, however, came with the launch of the exclusive TRUMP token, just days before his January 2025 inauguration. Its market capitalization shot into the tens of billions of dollars within hours, and most of the supply ended up in wallets linked to the Trump family. The result: enormous profits from trading fees and early sales.

It was no surprise that Melania Trump soon followed with her own meme coin—MELANIA—which, like its predecessor, initially surged and then crashed.

Both projects were more political-branding tools than serious financial instruments. Still, they ignited massive market activity and even pushed Bitcoin above the $100,000 mark temporarily.

According to various estimates, these initiatives alone brought the Trump family between $3–5 billion in just a few months. For someone who had once dismissed Bitcoin as a “fraud,” the turnaround was both striking and extremely lucrative.

The next step was the large-scale World Liberty Financial (WLFI) project, created by Donald Trump Jr., Eric, and Barron Trump, with Donald himself listed as “Honorary Co-Founder.” Launched in 2025, the platform introduced its own token, a stablecoin, and a suite of DeFi products.

Loading...

The tweet was deleted by the author.

But we saved everything 🙂.

The project quickly grew into a multibillion-dollar enterprise, with Trump’s personal stake in WLFI surpassing much of the value of his traditional real estate holdings.

Not stopping at tokens, the family entered mining. Their company American Bitcoin merged with Gryphon Digital and debuted on the stock market with a valuation of $7.7 billion. This gave the Trumps not only crypto assets but also control of one of the largest mining companies in the country.

Politics, profits, and controversies

If this were any other family, the story might not have sparked such uproar. But the overlap of politics and private gain made the Trump crypto saga uniquely contentious.

On one hand, Trump introduced a series of pro-crypto measures: establishing a “U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” and rolling back barriers that had held back digital assets. Supporters argue that this strengthened America’s position in the global financial race.

But critics say Trump was clearing the path for his own ventures. Suspicions deepened when WLFI began receiving investments from politically sensitive regions. Watchdogs raised concerns about conflicts of interest, and receptions for crypto investors at Trump properties were cited as ethical violations. In Congress, lawmakers even discussed banning sitting politicians from launching or promoting tokens.

Both the TRUMP and MELANIA tokens became textbook cases of speculative mania. Early insiders made fortunes, while thousands of retail investors lost money as prices collapsed. Analysts compared the projects to classic “pump and dump” schemes.

Eric Trump, once in the background, emerged as the family’s most vocal crypto advocate. After claiming he had been “de-banked” in 2021 for political reasons, he rebranded himself as a champion of mining and token projects—building a reputation as both a businessman and a crypto spokesman.

Despite the criticism, the results are undeniable. WLFI is now among the world’s largest DeFi projects. American Bitcoin has become a major mining player. And the Trump and Melania tokens—despite their volatility—have cemented the family’s brand in crypto culture.

The larger question is what this means for governance. For the first time in U.S. history, a sitting president has personally profited by billions from financial instruments shaped, at least in part, by his own administration’s policies. Some see it as strategic genius. Others, as a direct threat to democracy.

Either way, one thing is clear: political capital can turn overnight into digital wealth, and the intersection of technology, markets, and power can create fortunes worth billions.

This material may contain third-party opinions, none of the data and information on this webpage constitutes investment advice according to our Disclaimer. While we adhere to strict Editorial Integrity, this post may contain references to products from our partners.