The Japan Times - Trump earned over $1 bn from crypto ventures in 2025

According to the 927-page document released Tuesday by the US Office of Government Ethics, Trump received nearly $550 million from his ties to the startup World Liberty Financial in 2025.

World Liberty Financial (WLF) was co-founded in September 2024 by Trump's sons and the son of Trump's Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff.

The filings also mention $635 million in royalties received under a licensing agreement related to the $TRUMP cryptocurrency, launched just hours before the president's inauguration in January 2025.

The president's crypto activities are the main reason for the near tripling of his personal fortune, which rose from $2.3 billion to $6.5 billion between 2024 and 2026, according to Forbes.

The former real estate developer is regularly accused of conflicts of interest, in particular for having invested in the cryptocurrency industry while as president taking several measures to deregulate the sector, causing asset prices to soar.

The White House rejected any ethical concerns.

"Neither the President nor his family has ever engaged -- or will ever engage -- in conflicts of interest," Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to AFP.

Kelly said Trump had "proudly made the United States the crypto capital of the world."

"All actions by President Trump and his administration are taken in the best interest of the American people -- and any so-called ‘reporters’ pushing otherwise are recycling the same, tired, false narrative that Democrats and the legacy media have been pushing for a decade," Kelly added.

- Bibles and bumper stickers -

A 1978 law requires the president and vice president of the United States to declare their income as well as their assets.

First Lady Melania Trump's income is also set out in her husband's financial disclosure.

It includes more than $10 million for an Amazon documentary about her, and more than $500,000 for her book "Melania."

The disclosures make several mentions of World Liberty Financial, which issued its own cryptocurrency, WLFI, whose initial sale brought in $550 million.

Since becoming tradable in September 2025, its value has plummeted from 46 cents per unit to its current price of 6 cents.

Trump and his three sons also obtained, via an intermediary company, DT Marks Defi, an additional 22.5 billion WLFI, currently worth around $1.3 billion.

In April 2025, WLF also marketed its stablecoin -- a digital currency whose value is pegged to a traditional currency, in this case the dollar.

Beyond the income derived from WLF and its cryptocurrency, Trump has also earned several million dollars from shares in various publicly listed companies active in cryptocurrencies, such as the Coinbase exchange platform.

There are also earnings from Trump-branded goods, ranging from clothing to bumper stickers -- and more than $208,000 from bibles sold in partnership with country singer Lee Greenwood.

The president's assets are held in a trust managed by his son, Donald Trump Jr.

But its bylaws stipulate that the entity can be dissolved at any time, which means the billionaire could regain control of it as soon as his second term ends in 2029.

Vice President JD Vance meanwhile also saw significant earnings since becoming Trump's deputy. He reported royalties of between $1 million and $5 million from his 2016 memoir "Hillbilly Elegy."

S.Ogawa--JT