How much money has cryptocurrency helped Trump make

Donald Trump has been facing liquidity issues since the end of his last term. But after an extraordinary weekend before the inauguration ceremony, his financial concerns have dissipated.

On January 17th local time, Donald Trump released a meme coin that sparked a trading frenzy, with reports suggesting that his net worth skyrocketed by billions of dollars in an instant. This is pure nonsense. These numbers are based on theoretical prices, and Trump is currently unable to sell these encrypted assets. Therefore, Forbes follows the usual method of excluding unsellable assets from wealth statistics and values them as zero.

However, the portion of cryptocurrency that Trump has already sold has indeed increased his wealth, adding hundreds of millions of dollars in liquid assets to his balance sheet.

How did this happen?

01
The answer is World Liberty Financial.

In the past few days, this cryptocurrency project is estimated to have added $290 million in cash reserves to the incumbent president. World Liberty Financial aims to accelerate financial development and promote cryptocurrency to the public, generating revenue through the sale of tokens. Its' Golden Book '- a white paper with Trump's signature - explains that these tokens are currently unsellable and do not promise future profit sharing, making them almost unappealing for those who enjoy making money through investment.

The document shows that the initial $30 million in revenue will remain in the project. However, after reserving this initial funding, it seems that 75% of the profits will flow into Trump's company, while 25% will be divided among other insiders, including the family of Trump's incoming Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

Trump launched World Liberty Financial in August last year, but sales were not smooth at first. By November 2nd, the estimated value of the tokens purchased by customers was only $15 million - not enough to provide funding for the project, let alone share with Trump.

But in the weeks following the November 5th election, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur named Sun Yuchen announced a $30 million investment in the project, which is sure to give Trump some money. Sun Yuchen had been in a lawsuit with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which accused him of selling cryptocurrencies without registration and suspected fraudulent market manipulation. In the following weeks, sales gradually improved, reaching an estimated $94 million by January 18th, which means Trump's company could receive $48 million.

02
Then the situation went crazy.

At 9:18 pm Eastern Time on January 19th, World Liberty Financial announced that the tokens originally planned to be sold out last year, apparently earning $300 million. It is estimated that $206 million in sales was achieved within 29 hours before the inauguration ceremony. According to Forbes calculations, as of that time, Trump's share was approximately $200 million. He did not stop there.

World Liberty Financial subsequently launched a new batch of tokens for sale and increased the price of each token from 1.5 cents to 5 cents. By the evening of the 21st, the project had earned approximately $117 million, with an estimated $88 million entering Trump's company. This cryptocurrency business alone earned him approximately $290 million.

In addition to World Liberty Financial, Trump also sold a meme coin called $TRUMP. He announced the sale of this token on January 17th, which could benefit from the popularity of the inauguration ceremony.

TRUMP coin doesn't even pretend to have some financial properties - its official website tells buyers to "celebrate our victory, have fun!" while warning them that what they are buying is not an investment opportunity$ The payment structure of TRUMP coin is unclear, but for Trump, its potential returns may be even more lucrative than World Liberty Financial. He collaborated with another company called Fight Fight LLC through a company called CIC Digital LLC to release 200 million tokens, with a selling price of around $43 each on the morning of the 22nd. Buyers seem to receive some kind of digital card.

There are still many unknowns, including the average price at which the President and his team sold this batch of $TRUMP coins, as well as the ownership distribution between his company and Fight Fight LLC, which makes it difficult to accurately calculate how much profit Trump has gained from this wealth feast. Representatives from Trump's real estate companies and cryptocurrency projects did not respond to requests for comment. This billionaire announced the sale of tokens at 9pm on the 17th. According to CoinMarketCap data, the trading price of $TRUMP coin was about $7 at 11pm that night, and it soared to over $70 by the 19th. If Trump's company holds a 50% stake in the project and sells all 200 million tokens at an average price of $7, he could potentially make a windfall of $700 million - not including the approximately $290 million brought in by World Liberty Financial. (These amounts have not yet deducted any taxes he may need to pay.)

03
This can be considered an extraordinary achievement for Trump.

In the past four years, he has changed his way of making money through politics. He also published books and gave speeches like previous presidents, but also opened up new ways to benefit from his followers - by taking Trump Media and Technology Group public.

The group has developed a product similar to Twitter, which has successfully attracted investors despite not attracting many users. The stock of this product skyrocketed as soon as it went public, increasing Trump's net worth by billions of dollars. However, it is difficult for him to convert these shares into cash. Even after the lock up period ended, Trump did not sell a single share, possibly due to concerns that doing so would cause a sharp drop in stock prices and result in the evaporation of billions of dollars from his net worth.

His cryptocurrency business is the antidote.

From the beginning, these assets provided liquidity - regardless of whether their value ultimately collapsed. Trump stated that he plans to issue an additional 800 million $TRUMP coins during his second term.

Cash is crucial for this president. Prior to the cryptocurrency boom, his balance sheet was estimated to have $413 million, along with over $500 million in legal debt. He appealed against the cases that triggered these debts (two defamation lawsuits and one fraud case), during which interest continued to accumulate, leading to Trump's potential payout approaching $600 million. In the past, such numbers may have worried him. However, his two-day experience of regaining control of the White House proved that his second term had more "money" prospects than any presidential term in American history - all concerns were instantly dispelled.