In a staggering display of a family fortune transformed, the personal crypto holdings of President Donald Trump and his sons are now valued at more than $5 billion, a stunning leap that has created a new class of wealth for the Trumps and ignited a firestorm of questions over conflicts of interest. The explosive valuation comes as the family’s flagship crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, saw its namesake digital token, WLFI, begin trading on major exchanges this week.
The financial windfall stems from the Trumps’ significant stake in the World Liberty Financial (WLF) platform, a decentralized finance (DeFi) project they launched during the 2024 presidential campaign. According to public filings, the family holds 22.5 billion WLFI tokens, which accounts for nearly a quarter of the total token supply. With WLFI’s trading debut at around $0.25 per token, the Trumps’ allocation is now theoretically worth $5.6 billion, eclipsing the value of their decades-old real estate empire.
The unprecedented development puts the President and his family in a unique and fraught position. While the White House has repeatedly stated that President Trump has a hands-off approach to the family’s business dealings, their enormous personal stake in a volatile, largely unregulated market is now a central part of his presidency. Critics, including ethics watchdogs and Democratic lawmakers, have pointed to a profound conflict of interest, arguing that the President’s personal wealth is now tied directly to his administration’s crypto-friendly policy decisions.
“The Wall Street Journal just measured the size of the greatest corruption in presidential history — up to $5 billion, and counting,” said Bartlett Naylor, a financial reform advocate with the non-profit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen.
The Trumps, for their part, are not yet able to cash out their holdings. The WLFI tokens held by the founders remain “locked” under a vesting schedule, meaning the value exists only on paper for the time being. However, the trading has allowed for a market-based valuation, a crucial step for any new digital asset.
The valuation comes amidst a significant shift in President Trump’s public stance on crypto. Once a skeptic who called Bitcoin a “scam,” the President has in recent months championed the digital asset, vowing to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the world.” His administration has signed several crypto-friendly bills into law, including the so-called “Genius Act,” a federal law governing stablecoins.
For now, the Trumps’ newfound digital fortune has become a new front in the political and financial world. The massive value of the holdings could be a source of immense power, but it also opens the door to a level of scrutiny from regulators and the public that the family has never before experienced.