The Trump administration is poised to be a boom for crypto. Here’s all his personal exposure in DeFi

It’s been a busy postelection season for the cryptocurrency industry.

A month after President-elect Donald Trump clinched a second term, bitcoin hit a record $100,000, a crypto-friendly lawyer was nominated for the role of SEC chair, and the Trump-backed World Liberty Financial DeFi platform received a last-minute $30 million infusion. 

That upward momentum has brought fresh questions about an incoming president with growing industry ties: namely, how might Trump and his family financially benefit from their crypto ventures after his November 5 win. 

During Trump’s first term, conflicts of interest were frequent. Watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington tracked 3,400 through 2020. More than eight years later, many of those old conflicts persist — and new crypto-linked conflicts have been born. 

World Liberty Financial in the White House

World Liberty Financial launched on October 15, hoping to raise $300 million with the vague pitch of helping to “shape the future of DeFi.” The project sought to raise funds through the sale of a token, WLFI, to accredited investors. 

For the Trump family, the venture represented a money-making opportunity. Trump’s DT Marks DEFI LLC (sons Eric and Donald Jr. are listed as “promoters” alongside Trump) was set to receive 75% of WLF protocol revenues after the first $30 million in token sales.

Notably, possibly because of lukewarm investor interest and pushback, WLF scaled back its fundraising goal to $30 million in an October 30 filing. One crypto-industry insider called the development a “huge embarrassment.” 

The project succeeded in hitting, and passing, its $30 million goal last month when Justin Sun, founder of the Tron blockchain, purchased $30 million worth of WLFI. Token buyers are for now prohibited from transferring their WLFI tokens, so no reselling. Per WLF, as of early December, 4.98 billion tokens had sold at a price of $0.015 each, with 15.01 billion tokens remaining. 

In addition to pumping dollars into a seemingly stagnant project, Sun’s investment unlocked a fresh earnings opportunity for the Trump family. The fact that President-elect Trump stands to gain from crypto projects as he helps set the industry’s regulatory agenda has raised some eyebrows. 

Bart Naylor, a financial-policy advocate at nonprofit consumer-advocacy organization Public Citizen, wrote a blog post in October calling WFL “a glaring conflict of interest.” In a phone call after Trump’s win, Naylor said Trump’s position with WLF is structured in such a way to obfuscate possible conflicts of interest. 

“Trump did a couple smart things,” Naylor told Sherwood News. As the 47th president is not on the board, employed, or an official officer of WLF, “if WLF does poorly, Trump is not on the hook.” 

But Naylor still sees the president-elect as taking advantage of his ability to shape policy decisions. “If I want to buy influence with Trump as president,” Naylor hypothesized, “I can do it that way,” through WLFI token purchases. 

Though the crypto industry is relatively new — the bitcoin white paper was published in 2008 — the idea of a conflict of interest entangling the executive branch is decidedly not. The Emoluments Clauses in the US Constitution should, in theory, pressure Trump to divest from his businesses, but as seen during his first presidency, that didn’t happen. It’s now unlikely to happen with WLF, his Truth Social media company, or its parent organization, Trump Media and Technology Group. 

Naylor said he’s already seen an indirect domino effect benefiting Trump within the crypto industry. Paul Atkins’ nomination to serve as chair of the SEC likely means the pressure will let up on crypto ventures, Naylor said. Outgoing SEC Chair Gary Gensler has been prosecuting crypto cases, like Tornado Cash and Samourai Wallet, for money laundering, while Atkins is a lawyer and financial advisor known for supporting crypto platforms. 

“With the SEC off their backs, there’s less of a legislative push” to regulate crypto, Naylor said. In a statement this week, he said, “Atkins will be keenly able to reshape the SEC, either to vandalize or improve investor protections. We obviously hope he understands that, if confirmed, he will be expected to work on behalf of average Americans, not his consulting clients, crypto or otherwise.” 

Zack Shapiro, head of policy at the Bitcoin Policy Institute and a managing partner at a law firm representing crypto companies, said in a call with Sherwood that under Atkins, the industry expects “fewer punitive enforcement actions” and more proactive guidance. 

He expects there will be “broader crypto-world seismic shifts” under Atkins and Trump. But for Trump and his family personally? “There will be big winners here, but it’s unlikely to be World Liberty Financial.” 

Perhaps it doesn’t need to be. Arkham Intel, a blockchain-analytics platform, shows that Trump’s crypto wallets hold a mix of ethereum, USDC, and other tokens valued at more than $12 million. That basket of tokens could benefit from looser crypto policy, and is up substantially following Trump’s reelection.   

Slapping on the Trump name 

World Liberty Financial has branded itself as a “Trump” product, with his photo on the project’s home page. Shapiro sees this as another example of a classic Trump move: “lending his name to projects” and hoping that gives them enough of a boost despite fundamental problems. In its first two months before the Sun investment, WLF had received about $20 million in sales — far below its initial $300 million goal.

But even with crypto-friendly policy, Shapiro said he was hard-pressed to see how Trump could directly enrich himself with his current holdings and positions. Shapiro said he viewed the support from crypto advocates as more helpful in winning the election. Now, those same donors are “more likely to win than Trump” himself. 

Trump’s best bet: WLF stablecoin 

A direct line from a Trump presidency to Trump’s wallet comes in the form of a possible WLF stablecoin. 

World Liberty Financial’s so-called gold paper (adding Trump flair to the typical white paper) repeatedly mentions the importance of stablecoins pegged to the US dollar, and the project reportedly plans to issue its own stablecoin. Trump could be positioned to get returns from any stablecoin launch. 

Shapiro anticipates “regulatory clarity” on stablecoins as one of the first things the Trump administration pushes through Congress. After that, he predicts “a lot of folks will jump into the stablecoin game,” including bigger financial companies.

More crypto ventures, (not always) more money

While World Liberty Financial has recently grabbed headlines, it’s not Trump’s only crypto project. The former president has released several NFT collections, though these have mostly fizzled out. A year ago, Trump was touting the “MugShot Edition” of his digital trading cards after the first collection was introduced in 2022. Now there have been four collections, with the latest in August. A postelection boost for the $99 digital cards saw some sales and value increases, but that boost has since stalled.

Technically, Trump’s cards are not “owned, managed or controlled by Donald J. Trump,” as the website says, but the NFT company does pay licensing to Trump-affiliated CIC Digital LLC to use Trump’s name and image. Regardless of possible conflicts of interest, his stake in the cards may have limited upside with NFTs (and Trump’s in particular) floundering. 

A potential deal with crypto-trading platform Bakkt could be a side door for Trump into more crypto-related earnings. His Truth Social parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group, is looking into buying the firm, as the Financial Times reported last month. Trump is already intertwined with the company: Bakkt’s first CEO was former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, whom Trump tapped this week to head the Small Business Administration.

The Trump social-media company could also be developing its own crypto-payment service, TruthFi, as reported last month after a trademark application.

In other words, the opportunities for crypto-related conflicts of interest in the upcoming administration appear to be numerous. If Trump’s first term is any guide, we may not have to wait long to see how they play out. 

Sasha Lekach is a former Forbes Wheels deputy editor and Mashable tech reporter. She is now a freelancer focusing on EVs and vehicle tech.