I. Introduction

During his campaign, Donald Trump pledged to become the “Crypto President,” positioning digital assets as tools to strengthen the U.S. dollar and modernize the banking system. Once in office, he appointed crypto-friendly figures to key regulatory posts and advanced policies supportive of the industry — laying the foundation for his family’s deeper push into digital assets.

Since then, the Trump family has fused political influence, media reach, and financial vehicles into a powerful “accelerator,” rapidly building a multi-track crypto portfolio through Trump Media & Technology Group, family subsidiaries, and joint ventures. Their presence now spans across the ecosystem: personal meme coins, the USD1 stablecoin and WLFI platform, exchange-based treasury strategies, publicly listed mining firms, NFTs, and crypto ETFs. Together, these ventures form a business empire stretching across nearly every corner of the digital asset market.

This report maps out how the Trump family leverages political capital and financial power to expand its influence in crypto. We break down their business strategies — covering meme coins, stablecoins and DeFi platforms, treasury plays, listed miners, NFTs, and ETFs — while assessing both the opportunities and the risks. Our aim is to help investors view the “Trump crypto phenomenon” with clarity, beyond the hype and uncertainty.

II. Personal Meme Coins and Crypto Banquet Marketing

On January 18, 2025 — just days before his second inauguration — Donald Trump launched his personal meme coin, $TRUMP, on the Solana blockchain. The token’s supply was dominated by Fight Fight Fight, a company jointly owned by Trump subsidiaries CIC Digital and CIC, which controlled 80% of the issuance. Two days later, First Lady Melania Trump introduced her own meme token, $MELANIA, igniting a fresh wave of global FOMO.

Neither token offered real technological innovation. Their value was fueled almost entirely by media hype and political branding, making them pure sentiment-driven assets. At launch, the momentum was staggering: $TRUMP’s market cap soared to nearly $9 billion, with trading volume briefly surpassing Bitcoin. $MELANIA peaked near $1.6 billion, outshining several established crypto projects and underscoring the Trump family’s outsized personal brand power in the digital asset space.

The hype cycle, however, proved short-lived. $TRUMP’s market cap tumbled over 80% to about $1.7 billion, while $MELANIA collapsed below $150 million — less than 10% of its high. The sharp corrections left many retail investors nursing heavy losses. Critics accused the Trump family of “cashing out on supporters’ trust,” while social media narratives labeled the coins as “scams”, damaging both public confidence and the presidential image.

Source：https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/official-trump

The Trumps showed little hesitation in tying political power directly to token promotion. In May 2025, Trump hosted a “Crypto Banquet” at his private club, inviting the top 220 $TRUMP holders. Attendance required a $1.5 million donation per guest, raising tens of millions in a single night. What resembled a traditional Washington fundraiser instead became a gathering of crypto whales.

The event sparked sharp backlash. Democratic lawmakers and ethics watchdogs warned of serious conflicts of interest: as Trump advanced crypto-friendly regulations, his family simultaneously reaped significant financial gains from the same industry.

III. World Liberty Financial: The Trump Family’s Core DeFi Platform

The centerpiece of the Trump family’s crypto push is the DeFi platform World Liberty Financial (WLF). Founded in September 2024 by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, WLF rose to prominence following Trump’s election victory. The platform positions itself as a one-stop DeFi ecosystem, featuring the governance token WLFI and the USD1 stablecoin. Through DT Marks DEFI LLC, the Trump family controls nearly 60% of WLF’s holding company and claims 75% of token sale revenues. They also pre-allocated 22.5 billion WLFI tokens, securing a dominant “major shareholder” stake. The official site even lists Trump as “Chief Crypto Advocate” and “Honorary Co-Founder,” while his sons are branded as “Web3 Ambassadors.”

WLFI Token: WLFI began trading on September 1, 2025, opening at $0.20, spiking to $0.40, and closing around $0.23. As of September 4, WLFI’s market cap stood at roughly $5 billion, ranking 41st globally. With the family’s 22.5 billion tokens, their paper wealth reached about $5 billion — exceeding the value of the Trump Organization’s real estate and golf assets combined. Although WLFI’s debut underwhelmed early speculators, the family had already locked in huge profits through private deals. ALT5 Sigma purchased 7.5 billion WLFI for $1.5 billion, with 75% of the proceeds flowing directly to the Trumps, ensuring immediate cash gains regardless of market price swings.

Source：https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/world-liberty-financial

USD1 Stablecoin: Launched in March 2025, USD1 is pegged to the U.S. dollar and backed by Treasuries and cash. Boosted by the Trump brand and favorable regulatory positioning, its circulation quickly surged to $2.6 billion by September 4, making it one of the fastest-growing new stablecoins. The Abu Dhabi sovereign fund MGX even announced plans to deploy $2 billion worth of USD1 in a Binance investment. Despite ongoing ethics concerns, USD1 has already entered the global stablecoin mainstream. Looking ahead, WLF also plans to launch its own Layer 1 blockchain for tokenized real-world assets, with Franklin Templeton and Google Cloud reportedly expressing interest.

Diversified Reserves: To hedge risk and extend influence, WLF established a “Macro Strategy Reserve”, allocating assets across BTC, ETH, TRX, LINK, SUI, and ONDO. The initiative aims to buffer volatility, strengthen DeFi innovation, and build deeper capital reserves.

Source：https://intel.arkm.com/explorer/entity/worldlibertyfi

In sum, WLF embodies the Trumps’ ambition to build a comprehensive crypto empire spanning stablecoins, lending, and on-chain governance. While its meteoric rise underscores the power of political branding, the platform’s aggressive profit-sharing model and blurred lines between politics and business raise doubts about its long-term credibility.

IV. Trump Media Group: Bitcoin and CRO Strategic Reserves

The Trump family’s crypto ambitions also extend to Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG). In May 2025, the group announced a $2.5 billion fundraising round through stock and bond issuance to acquire Bitcoin as a treasury reserve — mirroring MicroStrategy’s model of holding BTC on its balance sheet. Currently, about 41% of TMTG equity is held in a trust under Donald Trump Jr., valued at roughly $2 billion. This underscores the family’s intent to integrate traditional media operations with crypto assets as a vehicle for wealth appreciation.

TMTG has also partnered with Crypto.com to launch a CRO reserve strategy. In August 2025, they jointly established Trump Media Group CRO Strategy, a company dedicated to accumulating CRO tokens. The entity was capitalized with 6.3 billion CRO, $200 million in cash, $220 million in warrants, and a $5 billion equity credit line from Yorkville. This structure effectively gave the Trumps significant control over CRO’s circulating supply, aligning their interests closely with the Crypto.com ecosystem.

Beyond direct crypto holdings, TMTG is advancing crypto-linked investment products in traditional finance. Together with Yorkville, the group is preparing to launch at least three ETFs: a Bitcoin spot ETF, a Bitcoin + Ethereum basket, and an index fund covering BTC, ETH, Solana, XRP, and CRO. If approved, these ETFs would further cement the Trumps’ influence across regulated crypto investment channels.

V. American Bitcoin: Mining Business

The Trumps’ ambitions in crypto go beyond token issuance and exchange investments — they also extend to Bitcoin mining. In March 2025, Eric Trump spearheaded the launch of a joint venture focused on mining, combining family resources with established industry expertise. Soon after, he finalized a merger with Hut 8, forming American Bitcoin Corp. Eric became co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), holding about 9.3% of shares, while Donald Trump Jr. reportedly held a similar stake. Together, they controlled roughly 20%, with Hut 8 retaining the remaining 80%. From its inception, American Bitcoin declared its mission to become “the world’s largest and most efficient pure Bitcoin mining company.”

On September 3, 2025, American Bitcoin went public on Nasdaq through a share-swap merger with Gryphon Digital Mining, trading under the ticker ABTC. On debut, shares surged — peaking at $14.52, more than double the IPO price — before closing at $8.04, still up 16.5%. The strong market reception was largely attributed to the Trump brand and optimism surrounding U.S. mining under favorable regulation.

Eric Trump has openly admitted that “crypto now takes up nearly half of my time.” He has actively promoted the U.S. Bitcoin mining sector abroad, lobbying in the Middle East and Asia and speaking at events in Dubai, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. Although Eric dismissed conflict-of-interest accusations as “absurd,” emphasizing that his father was not involved, critics continue to call for stricter safeguards to separate policymaking from private business interests.

VI. NFTs and Treasury Investments

Beyond their major ventures, the Trump family has also tapped into NFTs and crypto treasury strategies. In late 2022, Trump launched the Trump Digital Trading Cards NFT series, featuring superhero-style portrayals of himself. Despite initial controversy, the collection sold out quickly and traded at multiples of its issue price, demonstrating the market potential of celebrity NFTs. According to disclosures in June 2025, Trump earned about $1.16 million from NFT sales, while Melania earned roughly $216,700 from her own NFT royalties. Though small compared to other ventures, these figures underscored the family’s early grasp of the digital collectibles trend.

In financial markets, the family also invested in crypto treasury firms. Eric and Donald Jr. each held around 6.3% of Dominari Holdings, a digital asset treasury company. This aligns with their CRO reserve initiative under TMTG, both aimed at creating a kind of crypto “national treasury” model. Rumors have also linked the family to major exchanges such as Binance, suggesting possible undisclosed investments.

Taken together, these activities show how the Trumps have embedded themselves across nearly every corner of the crypto sector — from NFTs to exchange treasuries.

VII. Conclusion: Opportunities and Risks of the “Trump Crypto Phenomenon”

The Trump family’s aggressive entry into crypto has rapidly expanded their wealth empire. Compared with traditional real estate, their crypto ventures have delivered faster and more explosive growth — making “Trump” one of the hottest brands in the industry. By leveraging political power, media visibility, and financial engineering, they have accelerated both the mainstream narrative and capital inflows into digital assets. Yet, fundamentals, governance transparency, and regulatory boundaries remain the decisive factors for long-term sustainability.

Opportunities

• Mainstreaming narrative: Presidential backing and crypto-friendly policy signals lower institutional barriers.
• Media and distribution power: The Trump family’s brand draws massive attention, boosting liquidity for new tokens, stablecoins, and mining ventures.
• Vertical integration: From media and DeFi to treasuries and mining, their cross-chain model amplifies growth in bull cycles.
• Institutional precedent: Political and business elites entering the sector may encourage pensions and family offices to follow.

Risks

• Ethics and regulatory backlash: Blurred lines between public power and private profit risk triggering policy reversals and enforcement crackdowns.
• Sustainability and valuation: WLFI and USD1’s long-term value depends on on-chain revenue, audits, and governance — not political hype. Meme coins like TRUMP and MELANIA remain highly volatile.
• Structural and liquidity risks: Concentrated token holdings, unlock schedules, related-party deals, and mining dependencies could all magnify volatility.

Conclusion
In short, the “Trump crypto phenomenon” is both a powerful amplifier of digital asset adoption and a vivid case study of the interplay between power, capital, and narrative. While the family’s ventures showcase shrewd monetization of influence, they also epitomize the risks of hype-driven finance. For investors, only a sober assessment of both opportunities and pitfalls can unlock real value in this new financial era.

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Hotcoin Research, the core research and investment arm of Hotcoin Exchange, is committed to transforming professional crypto analysis into actionable strategies. Our three-pillar framework — trend analysis, value discovery, and real-time tracking — combines in-depth research, multi-angle project evaluation, and continuous market monitoring.

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