In the early months of his second term, President Donald Trump and his family embarked on several cryptocurrency projects, including a decentralized finance company and an exclusive dinner for investors in an official Trump memecoin. Since then, the Trump family’s connections to crypto have expanded further, deepening the president’s ties to an industry that is lobbying the administration and Congress to pass new and legitimizing regulatory frameworks.
The latest developments include large purchases of bitcoin, a cryptocurrency ETF, and a disjointed effort to launch an official Trump crypto wallet.
The wallet kurfuffle.
The wide—and confusing—net that Trump’s family and associates have cast across the world of crypto was exemplified early this month when the company behind the president’s namesake $TRUMP memecoin announced that it would be launching its own official “$TRUMP Wallet.” In crypto, wallets are used to store the private keys needed to securely access, send, and receive cryptocurrency. They act as a digital—and sometimes physical—vault where coins can be stored when not being used or transacted. The project was first reported on June 3 by independent journalist Molly White, and was quickly confirmed by Magic Eden, the cryptocurrency firm that was developing the wallet in partnership with the memecoin’s creator.
The memecoin project is collectively owned by Fight Fight Fight—a limited liability company run by longtime Trump associate Bill Zanker—and Trump Organization affiliate CIC Digital LLC. Both entities receive trading fees from the memecoin, and Trump has previously promoted the project directly. Fight Fight Fight was also reported to be the creator of the $TRUMP wallet.
Later the same day, however, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Barron Trump all distanced themselves from the wallet, saying that the Trump Organization and family had nothing to do with its creation. “This project is not authorized by @Trump. @MagicEden I would be extremely careful using our name in a project that has not been approved and is unknown to anyone in our organization,” Eric Trump wrote on X. “Stay tuned—World Liberty Financial @worldlibertyfi, which we have been working tirelessly on, will be launching our official wallet soon,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote. Official announcements of the wallet by the memecoin and Magic Eden have since been deleted.
It is unclear how or why the Trump-affiliated Fight Fight Fight pursued the wallet project without the knowledge of Trump or his family, if that is indeed what happened.
Last week, Eric Trump announced that the $TRUMP memecoin had been “aligned” directly with World Liberty Financial (WLF), a decentralized finance firm that the Trump family took control of last fall. The precise meaning of “aligned” is unclear. According to a post on X, WLF plans to “acquire a substantial position” in the memecoin for its treasury—a move that will add to the memecoin’s legitimacy and support its price. Eric Trump did not respond to questions from The Dispatch about the specifics of the arrangement.
WLF currently holds a large number of cryptocurrencies in its portfolio. In April, the New York Times reported that the company had approached at least five startup crypto firms about partnership deals in which WLF and the firms would purchase each other’s cryptocurrencies. According to the Times, WLF also asked the firms to make substantial investments in its governance token.
The empire expands.
Late last month, Trump Media & Technology Group—the publicly traded company founded by Trump that owns and operates Truth Social—announced that it would also be getting involved in crypto. In a May 27 press release, the business said that it would raise approximately $2.5 billion through issuing common stock and secured notes to create a “bitcoin treasury.”
The deal ties the value of Trump Media & Technology Group’s stock—which represents a substantial portion of Trump’s personal net worth, about $2.4 billion, as of June 11—closely to the value of the bitcoin now kept on its balance sheet. Trump, through a trust, owns about 50 percent of Trump Media & Technology Group’s stock, and his administration’s policy decisions on crypto could now directly influence the stock’s value. The price of bitcoin has long reflected broader sentiment about the crypto industry, meaning the president’s pro-crypto agenda could work to bolster bitcoin’s price—and, as a result, Trump’s personal wealth.
On June 5, the company also announced that it had filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to create a Truth Social Bitcoin exchange traded fund (ETF). The financial product will hold bitcoin directly and seek to reflect bitcoin’s price, allowing investors to speculate on the value of bitcoin by purchasing shares of the ETF. An affiliate of Yorkville Partners, a New Jersey-based investment firm, will serve as the registered investment adviser for the product.
The development follows Trump Media’s announcement in January that it would launch a finance company called Truth.Fi, which will operate financial products including separately managed accounts, ETFs, and crypto-related securities. “Developing American First investment vehicles is another step toward our goal of creating a robust ecosystem through which American patriots can protect themselves from the ever-present threat of cancellation, censorship, debanking, and privacy violations committed by Big Tech and woke corporations,” Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes said of the strategy in a press release.
Eric Trump’s venture.
The final recent development in the Trump family’s growing crypto portfolio is tied directly to his son, Eric. In March, Eric Trump and crypto firm Hut 8 partnered to launch American Bitcoin Corporation, an industrial-scale bitcoin mining business. Bitcoin mining is the process of using computers to solve complex mathematical problems that validate and secure transactions on the bitcoin network, and is a necessary part of the bitcoin ecosystem. The process is incredibly energy intensive and requires substantial computing power, but miners are rewarded for their effort with newly minted bitcoins and transaction fees. Donald Trump Jr. is also an investor in the project.
In May, American Bitcoin announced that it would become a publicly traded company through a stock-for-stock merger with Gryphon Digital Mining, a bitcoin mining company that is publicly traded on the Nasdaq. Together, the firms will seek to accumulate bitcoin at scale. A presentation for the deal promotes Eric Trump’s “exceptional network” to drive the brand’s reach and visibility as a leader in the bitcoin mining space. Policy decisions made by the administration on crypto regulation will almost certainly influence the value of American Bitcoin’s operations.
Since taking office, Trump has introduced two executive orders related to crypto, and the House and Senate are both working to pass the first federal regulatory framework for stablecoins—a kind of cryptocurrency that tracks the value of currencies like the dollar. Given Trump’s control over executive agencies and the Republican Party’s control of both the House and the Senate, opportunities to check potential conflicts of interest are limited. In May, Democrat members of the House Committee on Financial Services introduced legislation that would prohibit the president, vice president, members of Congress, and their immediate family members from participating in a variety of crypto-related activities. The proposed restrictions would apply to many of the Trump family’s current ventures. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services, but is unlikely to be advanced by the committee’s Republican majority.
