In the period following the events of January 6th at the U.S. Capitol in 2021, several financial institutions terminated their relationships with the Trump family’s businesses. Hundreds of accounts linked to the Trump Organization were closed, according to an interview with Donald Trump in The Wall Street Journal, though specific explanations were not provided.
The Trump Organization subsequently dispersed funds across a range of smaller, regional banks. Eventually, the organization transitioned its banking operations to a
new institution, the name of which was not disclosed.
Trump stated, “It was at that point that I came to see how precarious the financial structure truly is, and the degree to which it can be utilized as a weapon against individuals.” He voiced his belief that these decisions were motivated by political considerations.
Banks maintain that account closures are not based on political affiliations. However, the notion of “debanking” has gained traction among conservatives, who have increasingly criticized lenders. This criticism intensified after banks implemented diversity initiatives following the death of George Floyd in 2020. Both conservative voices and cryptocurrency entities have accused banks of refusing service based on political or religious beliefs. Senator Elizabeth Warren has also stated that banks should cease what she termed discriminatory practices.
This experience significantly influenced the Trumps’ growing interest in cryptocurrencies, a sector championed for its potential to bypass traditional banking controls over accounts and financial transactions.
Eric Trump, as Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization, has played a prominent role in the family’s rapid expansion into the crypto industry during Trump’s presidential term. The Trump family has acquired significant interests in Bitcoin mining and asset purchasing, along with other crypto-assets. A particular holding in World Liberty Financial was recently estimated at $4.5 billion.
Eric Trump recently participated in the opening bell ceremony at Nasdaq to commemorate an agreement between ALT5 and World Liberty Financial.
Critics and members of the Democratic party outside the government have expressed concerns that the Trump family’s significant involvement in cryptocurrencies creates substantial conflicts of interest, especially as President Trump relaxes regulatory oversight of the industry. The Trumps have asserted that these endeavors are separate and independent from the president’s official duties. “I have absolutely nothing to do with Washington, D.C.,” Eric Trump affirmed.
President Trump has also prioritized the issue of debanking during his term, garnering considerable support from various conservative organizations, lawmakers, and cryptocurrency firms.
This effort resulted in an executive order issued this month, which directs regulatory bodies to investigate potential discrimination by banks based on political or religious grounds, with the intent to penalize any such practices.
Separately, the Trump Organization has initiated legal proceedings against Capital One, alleging that the bank closed its accounts due to political motivations. The company has denied that political reasons were a factor. Generally, banking executives state they cannot always disclose specific reasons for closing accounts, but have pointed to regulatory pressures in the past to avoid clients presenting potential reputational risks.
Real Estate Roots
A decade ago, Donald Trump would not have envisioned himself being involved in the crypto sector. He identifies as a “real estate person,” and has previously shared his father’s earlier doubt about Bitcoin.
Eric Trump pictured at Mar-a-Lago in 1998.
Eric Trump, age 41, temporarily suspended earlier this year. In June, it secured a $100 million investment from Aqua 1 Foundation, a company based in the United Arab Emirates. Before this investment in World Liberty, the Aqua 1 Foundation had very limited exposure in this sector.
Recently, ALT5 Sigma, a publicly traded cryptocurrency payments firm, allocated $1.5 billion in shares to acquire WLFI tokens and appointed Trump as a director on the company’s leadership board.
Eric Trump speaking at a cryptocurrency and blockchain conference in Dubai in May.
Ethics lawyers have harshly criticized the Trump family’s cryptocurrency endeavors, calling them an unprecedented intersection of the President’s business interests and his official authority.
According to Norm Eisen, who formerly served as the White House ethics head during the Obama administration, “What Donald Trump is doing with crypto is the essence of corruption because you have the individual who holds ultimate authority over regulation in the industry, who also has significant financial interests across various components of that same industry. He is inherently placed in a position where his decisions will affect his own personal wealth.”
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, stated that “The media’s ongoing efforts to create false conflicts of interest are reckless” and affirmed that “neither the President nor his family have ever been involved or will ever be involved in conflicts of interest.”
Cryptocurrency Enthusiasm
In December, Eric Trump traveled to Abu Dhabi to participate for the first time in a major bitcoin conference. He voiced his enthusiasm for bitcoin and had a meeting with Mike Ho, the Chief Strategy Officer of bitcoin mining firm, Hut 8. Shortly afterward, the publicly traded company would finalize an agreement with Trump’s soon-to-be-launched data center enterprise to create American Bitcoin, which specializes in bitcoin mining, specifically the performance of complicated computer calculations to obtain cryptocurrency.
Eric Trump, described as the co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of American Bitcoin, holds a 9.3% ownership stake in the company, according to a recent regulatory document.
Anthony Scaramucci, a former advisor during President Trump’s initial period in office whose investment company SkyBridge Capital has actively invested in cryptocurrency since 2020, suggests that Eric Trump’s enthusiasm for crypto is not superficial. “He has studied the original bitcoin documentation extensively. He has done a tremendous amount of research,” said Scaramucci.
Among the Trump family’s cryptocurrency ventures, none has created as much controversy as the $TRUMP memecoin. This digital currency launched just three days prior to President Trump assuming office, and reached a maximum market value of close to $15 billion, although it has since declined to roughly $1.7 billion. The specific arrangements for profit sharing between the family and its partners remain unclear.
Jackets at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas. President Trump is lightening regulations on the crypto industry.
Even experienced cryptocurrency professionals have mixed views of memecoins, which are tokens inspired by popular internet memes or personalities.
Eric Trump suggests that memecoins enable investors to offer immediate support to their passions while also offering a simple entry point for newcomers into the crypto industry.
He added, “If an individual wishes to invest in $TRUMP, they now have access to Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD1, and even the United States dollar. They’ve taken a first step towards gaining some financial freedom, which I believe is what many around the world are striving for.”
In considering the future, Trump hypothesized that many real-world physical assets could benefit from association with cryptocurrency. “If I wanted to refinance Trump Tower, why couldn’t I tokenize the asset and put it on the street for billions of people around the world to otherwise invest in it?” he proposed. “They admire New York. They admire Fifth Avenue. They admire Trump.”
To contact Vicky Ge Huang, email: vicky.huang@wsj.com
How Eric Trump Became One of Crypto’s Greatest Evangelists
How Eric Trump Became One of Crypto’s Greatest Evangelists
How Eric Trump Became One of Crypto’s Greatest Evangelists
How Eric Trump Became One of Crypto’s Greatest Evangelists