(Bloomberg) — In just a few short weeks, Donald Trump’s family has accrued approximately $1.3 billion through two relatively new cryptocurrency ventures, both less than a year old.
The revenue streams originate from the crypto firm World Liberty Financial and the separate cryptocurrency mining endeavor, American Bitcoin Corp., showcasing how burgeoning ventures are materializing into substantial financial gains for the Trump family. These financial windfalls rival the worth of more established assets like golf courses and resorts traditionally associated with the Trumps, whose total fortune currently amounts to $7.7 billion, as per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, the former president’s oldest sons, continue to share the executive vice president role at the Trump Organization, while increasingly becoming the public faces of the family’s expanding cryptocurrency holdings.
Eric Trump, left, and Donald Trump Jr.Photographer: Ronda Churchill/Bloomberg
World Liberty, co-founded by Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Barron Trump, achieved a noteworthy milestone on September 1st when it enabled customers to trade its proprietary token. Additionally, the company recently secured a valuable arrangement with a publicly listed firm to accumulate the digital asset.
Collectively, these developments augmented the Trumps’ wealth by around $670 million, according to Bloomberg’s wealth assessment, which now includes it as part of their family fortune. This calculation excludes roughly $4 billion in tokens held by the Trumps that are currently locked.
Eric Trump’s ownership stake in American Bitcoin, established in March with the objective of mining virtual assets, exceeded $500 million when the company’s stock experienced a surge in its initial trading day on September 3rd.
These rapid gains signal a shift in the Trump family’s sources of wealth. Previously, properties like Trump Tower in Manhattan and Mar-a-Lago were their fastest path to accumulating wealth. The speed and scale of their profits derived from cryptocurrency are unprecedented for a family that has previously attached its brand to a variety of products.
Neither the Trump Organization nor the White House provided a response to inquiries for comment. David Wachsman, spokesperson for World Liberty Financial, declined to offer any comment.
The Trumps also have new ventures underway. Warren Hui, a co-founder of Soul Ventures, which invested in Alt5 Sigma Corp., the company that began acquiring World Liberty tokens last month, stated that the cryptocurrency firm’s founders have proposed “tokenizing” real estate assets—creating digital representations of tangible physical assets. He further noted that Eric Trump was among those who presented this concept.
“We were confident after speaking with Eric Trump, given his experience in hospitality and real estate,” Hui stated.
‘Buy Right Now’
World Liberty and American Bitcoin operate at the crossroads of the cryptocurrency and public markets. Originally, crypto enthusiasts sought to create an alternative to conventional finance. But they are increasingly using publicly traded entities to bolster the value of their tokens. It is an echo of a method crypto celebrity Michael Saylor pioneered, and a strategy to generate sustained demand for these sometimes erratic virtual assets.
Under prior regulations, the crypto industry was subject to stricter regulation. During the Biden administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission took action against cryptocurrency exchanges for offering unregistered securities, and filed suits against certain high-profile companies, including Coinbase Global Inc. and Kraken. Under Trump, who appointed friendlier regulators and promised to make the United States the “crypto capital of the world,” these prominent lawsuits were dropped.
In response to concerns regarding potential conflicts of interest stemming from the family’s participation in digital assets, the President’s sons have asserted that their business endeavors operate independently from the government.
Eric Trump during the Bitcoin Asia conference in Hong Kong.Photographer: Chan Long Hei/Bloomberg
Nonetheless, while attending the Bitcoin Asia conference in late August, Eric Trump mentioned encouraging his father to speak to Bitcoin enthusiasts while campaigning in Nashville last year. Eric Trump, who told Bloomberg last week that he’s been buying Bitcoin for “several years,” often promotes the asset class, which is currently contributing to his family’s substantial accumulation of new wealth.
“Buy right now,” he told the Bitcoin Asia audience in Hong Kong. “Buy this second.” He followed up with a mention of Saylor’s entreaty to “sell a kidney if you must, but keep the Bitcoin.”
World Liberty Financial
World Liberty was launched in September 2024, coinciding with Trump’s campaign against Kamala Harris. The Trumps, Steve Witkoff, who became the administration’s special envoy to the Middle East, and his sons, Zach and Alex Witkoff, were listed as co-founders.
Initially, buyers could only use World Liberty Financial tokens to vote to “shape the future” of the project. According to the company’s website, there have been three proposals so far, including a proposal to make the WLFI token tradable.
One decision that was not subject to a vote was a deal in August with Alt5 Sigma, a relatively obscure firm based in Las Vegas that previously focused on biotechnology.
Alt5 Sigma, a publicly traded entity, declared its intention to purchase around $1.5 billion worth of World Liberty tokens. The transaction had two parts: the company exchanged its own shares for approximately $750 million worth of tokens at 20 cents per token and bought approximately the same amount using cash. At the time, the WLFI token was still restricted and non-tradeable.
According to Bloomberg calculations, the Alt5 Sigma transaction is worth about $670 million to the Trumps in total. Although Alt5 Sigma’s shares have lost more than half of their value since the tie-up was announced, they are still worth nearly $170 million to the Trump family. The Trumps also receive 75% of World Liberty token sales, worth roughly another $500 million.
Donald Trump Jr., from center left, Zach Witkoff, Eric Trump, Zak Folkman and Scott Alper, president and chief investment officer of the Witkoff Group.Photographer: Adam Gray/Bloomberg
“We are at the tip of the spear,” Eric Trump said at Nasdaq’s Times Square office, where he gathered with Zach Witkoff and fellow co-founders Chase Herro and Zak Folkman to celebrate the union. “We are really going to rewrite the whole playbook.”
The 22.5 billion WLFI tokens belonging to the Trump family, which they received when the project first began, are a wild card in this situation. WLFI tokens have been partially trading in the past week, at prices that would value the Trumps’ haul at $4 billion.
However, unlike the portion of the tokens that were made tradeable for early investors, the tokens allotted to the Trumps, Witkoffs, and other World Liberty team members are still “locked.” The Bloomberg Billionaires Index does not include these tokens in the overall value of the Trumps’ crypto holdings because they are not yet tradable.
American Bitcoin
American Bitcoin was established around two months after President Trump’s inauguration with the intention of mining Bitcoin and with backing from Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. The company did not need to supply any of the specialized equipment, even though Bitcoin mining is an energy-intensive process that depends on a large number of computers; instead, Hut 8 Corp., a public corporation, contributed its own mining equipment in return for a controlling stake in the fledgling enterprise.
American Bitcoin quickly became a public corporation. It decided to have Gryphon Digital Mining, a public company, adopt American Bitcoin’s name and business and change its stock ticker to ABTC instead of taking the more conventional route of an initial public offering.
According to Bloomberg computations, Eric Trump currently owns approximately 7.5% of the public company, which momentarily brought the value of his stake near to $1 billion last week. Donald Trump Jr. also held a smaller stake in American Bitcoin, but public documents did not specify the stake’s size.
When asked about the growing amount of wealth from his American Bitcoin on Bloomberg TV, Eric Trump simply said that “we are incredibly fortunate in life with or without this endeavor.” However, he nodded to the fact that he now spends a lot of time advocating for cryptocurrency and the businesses he has supported.
“I want to be a great spokesperson for it,” he said.
