The Trump family gained $1.4 billion in value through cryptocurrencies in a year, accounting for one-fifth of their total net worth.

Article author: Wenser (@wenser 2010)

Article source: Odaily Odaily(@OdailyChina)

For Trump, 2025 will be the year he begins a "second spring in his career"; for the Trump family's crypto project WLFI, 2025 will be the "summer of summer".

This crypto project, which began in September 2024, achieved several milestones in just one year, including two rounds of public offerings, three large-scale funding rounds, token launches, the introduction of the stablecoin USD1, and the establishment of the DAT Treasury listed company. Behind these achievements, however, lies even more controversy: Justin Sun initial $30 million donation was questioned as a "political donation"; the subsequent launch of the Trump token, the trading ban period after WLFI's launch, and USD1 being designated as the "designated" coin in Binance's $2 billion investment—WLFI and its team are inextricably linked not only to the "political ties" of Trump, but also to countless inside stories and controversies. On January 30th, the "WLFI $550 million public offering" will mark its one-year anniversary. Let's review the various rights and wrongs of this past year and clarify the facts and viewpoints.

Three major controversies surrounding the Trump family's crypto projects: WLFI public offering, Trump Meme coin, and the popularization of the USD1 stablecoin.

In 2025, the Trump family increased their wealth by $1.4 billion through crypto assets, accounting for approximately one-fifth of their total net worth. During Trump's second term, the Trump family gained significant profits through new projects such as the co-founded crypto platform World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the Trump Meme coin, and the Bitcoin mining company American Bitcoin Corp. (ABTC). Behind this enormous wealth, however, lie three major controversies:

Controversy 1: WLFI public fundraising may be political donations.

In October 2024, after completing the whitelist registration process, WLFI officially launched its public offering at a price of $0.015 per token. However, due to multiple website outages, although $5 million was raised within an hour, it still fell far short of its $300 million fundraising goal. Subsequently, the WLFI team reduced its fundraising target by 90% to 10% of the original target, or $30 million.

In November 2024, Justin Sun announced that TRON DAO would invest $30 million in WLFI, becoming the project's largest investor. Thus, despite official documents specifically mentioning that "the Trump family will receive 75% of WLFI's net income and will not bear any liability," this round of financing was completed as scheduled.

Subsequently, Justin Sun transformed himself from a "cryptocurrency practitioner" with whom he had previously had considerable ties with official US forces into a "WLFI project advisor." This sparked speculation in the market that WLFI's public offering was a form of political donation, a suspicion that intensified after WLFI's second public offering and the launch of the Trump token.

Controversy 2: Trump as a Harvesting Scythe

In January 2025, on the eve of Trump's inauguration as President of the United States, Trump was officially launched with the concept of "Trump's official genuine Meme coin". This caused a stir in the market, and countless people flocked to it in an attempt to realize their dream of getting rich quickly (and it did indeed make many Chinese-speaking people the first to buy in).

Ultimately, aside from the fact that the issuer of the Trump token made a whopping $320 million in transaction fees over four months, approximately 800,000 wallets suffered a total loss of $2 billion, with an average loss of about $2,500 per wallet, making it the largest "epic harvesting operation" in cryptocurrency history.

Meanwhile, WLFI's second large-scale public offering also successfully concluded, ultimately attracting $550 million in funding: On January 20, WLFI completed the sale of 20 billion tokens, raising $300 million; on the same day, due to insufficient supply, WLFI officially opened up an additional 5% token sale, and the price of a single token rose from $0.015 to $0.05; ultimately raising $250 million.

Thus, stimulated by positive factors such as Trump's inauguration as US president and the successful fundraising of WLFI, Trump has once again become a "money-making machine" and "harvesting sickle" for the Trump family's crypto projects.

It is worth mentioning that after its initial public offering, WLFI had already begun to invest in cryptocurrencies such as ETH. Relying on the "political halo" of Trump and the Trump family, WLFI's buying gradually gained a strong ability to influence market liquidity and short-term hot money, and later became a major factor influencing "News Trading".

Controversy 3: USD1 becomes part of the "national team" of stablecoins

In March 2025, WLFI officially announced its plan to launch the stablecoin USD1. This stablecoin is 100% backed by short-term U.S. Treasury bonds, dollar deposits, and other cash equivalents. Initially, it will be issued on Ethereum (ETH) and Binance Smart Chain (BSC), aiming to provide sovereign investors and institutions with a secure and efficient cross-border trading tool.

It is no exaggeration to say that the birth of USD1 was strongly influenced by Trump, and subsequent events have proven this fact.

In early April 2025, a major event concerning WLFI and USD1 will occur:

Firstly, the Trump family, through a new holding company WLF Holdco LLC, controls at least 60% of the DeFi project World Liberty Financial, replacing the two co-founders as the controlling shareholder;

Secondly, after 10 hours of heated debate, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee passed the Stable Coin Act. This bill reportedly establishes a strict regulatory framework for stablecoin payments, requiring issuers to obtain federal or state approval and be backed 1:1 by highly liquid assets. At the time, Democratic lawmakers strongly criticized it, with Representative Maxine Waters calling it "a clear display of greed and corruption" and questioning whether the president's push for deregulation of cryptocurrencies while simultaneously entering the industry constituted a conflict of interest. In July 2025, the GENIUS Act, a precursor to the Stable Coin Act, was successfully passed by both the House and Senate and signed into law by Trump.

Furthermore, USD1 was selected as the "official stablecoin" in the UAE sovereign wealth fund MGX's $2 billion investment in Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. This news was also confirmed in a post by Eric Trump, co-founder of WLFI and son of Donald Trump.

Earlier this year, WLFI officially announced that its subsidiary, World Liberty Trust, submitted a de novo application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on January 7, seeking a national trust bank license in the United States. If approved, the trust bank will directly issue and hold its USD stablecoin USD1, and gradually expand into crypto asset custody and stablecoin exchange services, primarily serving institutional clients. Although Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren requested a pause in the review of the application, OCC Commissioner Jonathan Gould emphasized that WLFI's application will be subject to rigorous evaluation, just like other applications.

On January 23, Eric Trump, co-founder of WLFI and son of Donald Trump, posted that the issuance of USD1, a stablecoin issued less than a year ago, has surpassed that of PayPal's stablecoin PYUSD (which has an issuance of only $3.69 billion).

In summary, the "series of crypto-friendly policies" spearheaded by Trump have also indirectly provided policy support and regulatory convenience for the promotion, mainstreaming, and institutional adoption of the USD1 stablecoin.

Beyond the controversies mentioned above, what's even more intriguing is the Trump family's crypto projects and the series of "fancy maneuvers" by insiders in the crypto market.

The Trump family's insider trading secrets: "News Trading" and "TACO-style Trading" throughout.

As mentioned earlier, the Trump family's cryptocurrency project WLFI's use of public funds to purchase various cryptocurrencies provided a natural breeding ground for "news trading"; while Trump's ambivalent political attitude and frequent tariff trade wars facilitated "TACO-style trading" and insider trading. Specifically, related insider controversies include the following events:

Three Trump dinners have drawn criticism and questions.

In April 2025, the announcement of a VIP dinner for the first 220 Trump holders was officially made. Subsequently, the on-chain transaction volume of Trump tokens reached a staggering $2.4 billion within a short period, the price of Trump surged by 60% that day, on-chain activity skyrocketed by 200%, and it recorded the highest single-day trading volume on centralized exchanges since mid-February. Ultimately, this "token holding race" ended with an average of nearly $4.8 million in Trump assets held per person, with some Trump dinner invitees reaping huge profits through token trading.

In May 2025, the "Crypto & AI Innovators Dinner," organized by MAGA Inc.'s Super PAC (Trump's campaign organization), was successfully held, with a single seat costing $1.5 million. These two Trump dinners drew criticism from several political figures, including Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who argued that the move might involve a quid pro quo of "presidential privilege in exchange for business investment."

In October 2025, Trump hosted a dinner for tech giants under the guise of "fundraising for the new White House banquet hall." Attendees included Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, executives from Coinbase and Ripple, and representatives from companies such as Meta, Google, Amazon, Lockheed Martin, and Microsoft. This event was interpreted by many as an example of Trump abusing his power for personal gain.

In addition, the WLFI Foundation, due to its significant influence, has repeatedly purchased various Altcoin and is considered one of the market's leading indicators, making it a hotbed for news trading and insider trading.

Hyperliquid 50x Leverage Insider: Whale Precisely Bet on Tariff Negative Impact and Market Rebound

In February 2025, the "Hyperliquid 50x leveraged whale" became a market focus. In less than a month, this address precisely timed itself for positive news from Trump, achieving a "triple victory":

For the first time, this address profited over $6.8 million by long on BTC and ETH;

The second time, the address opened a short position of $13.45 million in BTC. It initially suffered a small loss of $60,000, but eventually turned a profit of nearly $300,000.

The third time, the address long on ETH with a 50x leverage, ultimately profiting $2.15 million in less than 40 minutes. The total profit from these three trades was $9.28 million. For details, see "Review of the 'Insider's' Amazing Moves in Hyperliquid Contracts: Precise Opening and Closing of Long and Short Positions."

Insider whale reappears: Making a killing of $200 million during the October 11th crash, betting ahead of the market on "Trump pardoning CZ".

In October 2025, the "10.11 epic crash" brought a historic large-scale liquidation to the market, but such chaos became a stage for insider whale to perform.

Among them, address 0xb317D2BC2D3d2Df5Fa441B5bAE0AB9d8b07283ae opened a large short position with a nominal value of about $1.1 billion before the big crash, making a profit of nearly $200 million in one day; address 0xc2a30212a8DdAc9e123944d6e29FADdCe994E5f2 achieved a terrifying record of 12 consecutive wins since October 14, accumulating a profit of $12.634 million.

The Hyperliquid insider whale Garrett Jin's associated account, "bigwinner01," even bet on "Trump will pardon CZ" as early as September 28, 2025, investing a total of $28,677.33 and profiting $56,824.32, a near 100% return. According to previous investigations by Chain Detective Eyes, Garrett Jin's sources may be insiders who have long used White House rumors and policy forecasts for trading. This information was allegedly passed from aides close to the US president's team to a group of traders with privileged access to information, allowing them to establish favorable positions in advance. Currently, the key figures confirmed to be involved are Zach Witkoff and Chase Herro, and Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is also suspected of involvement. See "How is a 100% Winning Rate Whale Made? Unveiling the True Identity of 'Trump-Faction Insiders'" for details.

Conclusion: WLFI is both a model opera and a wealth-creating machine.

Beyond the aforementioned controversies, prior to the official launch of WLFI tokens last September, a dispute arose between WLFI and the established DeFi protocol Aave over early token distribution. From that point onward, WLFI's ambition to go beyond simply being a DeFi lending platform became unmistakable. With the entry of companies like ALT5 Sigma (a US-listed company) and Bitcoin mining firm American Bitcoin Corp. (ABTC) into the "crypto battlefield," WLFI's role has become even more complex—it is now both a model project of Trump's pro-crypto stance and a "crypto regulatory bellwether" in the eyes of the crypto market.

After all, people might think, "If the president's family's crypto projects are still thriving, the current US government's crypto regulatory environment won't suddenly deteriorate." From this perspective, despite ongoing controversy and numerous doubts, WLFI and the Trump family's many crypto projects have objectively accelerated the mainstreaming of crypto. However, for members of the Trump family, WLFI's more important function remains a "wealth-generating machine" that allows them to amass enormous wealth.