An investigation reveals how the Trump family turned minimal crypto involvement into roughly $2.3 billion in proceeds, while many outside investors faced steep losses.
Over the years, Donald J. Trump has adhered to a simple plan for making money: attach his name to a product, company, or project, often putting in minimal of his own money, actively promoting it and waiting for profits. Since mid-2024, when he ran for a second term, Trump and his family have applied the same approach in the world of cryptocurrency – with striking results for themselves and for investors.
The purpose of the investigation was to determine how much money the family earned from four main crypto projects, what their own contribution was, and what the results looked like for external investors.
Summary: the family earned about $2.3 billion from cryptocurrency projects with minimal, virtually no risk, while other investors during the same period lost about $2.3 billion, including paper losses, as of the end of April.
Revenue mechanism and minimal risk
Initial outlays for the family’s largest crypto project World Liberty Financial and for the meme-coin project $TRUMP, by estimates, were under one million dollars, perhaps even well under, for code development, website creation, and legal costs. “These are very small sums,” said Seoyoung Kim, associate professor of finance at Santa Clara University, adding that the costs could have been zero if developers and advisers were paid in tokens rather than cash.
Two Nasdaq-listed crypto companies brought Trump millions: ALT5 Sigma, now AI Financial Corp., and American Bitcoin. According to corporate filings, where Trump’s stake was mentioned, interests were acquired without cash contributions from the family. The analysis was conducted by faculty of accounting, finance and analytics and more than ten crypto consultants and academics, as well as 27 individual investors.
ALT5 Sigma, American Bitcoin, the $TRUMP and World Liberty Financial projects did not respond to requests about whether they contributed money and in what amounts. Likewise, Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump did not respond to requests.
Profits exceeding $2 billion
Trump’s crypto earnings largely come from the sale of tokens. World Liberty Financial disclosed that it raised $1.4 billion from the sale of 30 billion governance tokens, which gave the family about $987 million after accounting for their 75% share of World Liberty’s token sales and expenses. The figure also includes a share of direct sales to investors and $538 million under a deal in which World Liberty sold tokens publicly listed on the ALT5 Sigma exchange.
However, experts believe that total income from World Liberty token sales could be substantially higher. In October 2025, World Liberty disclosed that there were 3 billion fewer tokens than previously claimed. In September, an online post by World Liberty stated that some tokens were allocated to support demand, but did not disclose sale details. If these 3 billion tokens were sold, their potential proceeds would be at least $460 million, according to experts’ estimates.
Token sales are significant. It appears insiders were dumping tokens.
– Campbell Harvey
Such sales, according to experts, pushed the family’s total World Liberty token earnings above $1.4 billion – the largest share of the overall $2.3 billion Trump profits from crypto gains.
A World Liberty Financial spokesperson David Waxman said that “WLFI does not confirm third-party token valuation methodologies or the valuation of investors’ overall positions.”
As for the $TRUMP project, it provides no information about earnings. According to analysis, profits from sales could have exceeded $880 million, and together with other channels, total revenue was around $1.2 billion.
According to analysts, the family received roughly half of the profits from $TRUMP – about $616 million – but other experts point to possible larger sums, given the project’s dependence on the Trumps’ active involvement in marketing and the terms of World Liberty’s partnership.
Some investors in ALT5 Sigma and American Bitcoin also suffered losses. By the end of March 2026, ALT5 Sigma had fallen from over $9 to around $0.75 per share, American Bitcoin from about $11 to $1.15, resulting in significant financial losses for their investors.
Total losses for World Liberty token investors are estimated at roughly $674 million. Meanwhile, the total losses for investors in ALT5 Sigma and American Bitcoin surpassed hundreds of millions of dollars.
According to crypto analytics, a substantial portion of profits went to large traders who bought and sold tokens early, while tens of thousands of retail investors suffered losses. The total outlays by buyers for $TRUMP and World Liberty exceeded $1.2 billion; as of the end of April, their value stood at about $521 million, implying overall losses of more than $700 million for buyers.
The findings of the investigation underscore the risks of the crypto market and the role of transparency in crypto projects, and show that the name and involvement of a well-known family can significantly influence investors’ decisions even in the absence of complete information about a crypto project’s income and expenses.