Trump’s Crypto Assets Are Nonsense. The Cash They Throw Off Is Very Real

Forbes

Liquidity concerns loomed over Donald Trump while he was out of office. Thanks to an inaugural weekend unlike any other, those worries are now gone.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2025/01/22/trumps-crypto-assets-are-nonsense-the-cash-they-throw-off-is-very-real/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, Trump's cryptoassets are nonsense.

00:05The cash they throw off is very real.

00:08Donald Trump released a digital meme on the Friday before his Monday inauguration,

00:13sparking a trading frenzy that led to reports that he had instantly added tens of billions of dollars to his fortune.

00:20Unfortunately, that is nonsense.

00:23Those numbers are based on theoretical prices for cryptoassets that Trump cannot sell right now,

00:29which is why Forbes values them at zero,

00:32in keeping with our methodology of generally excluding unsellable assets from net worth tallies.

00:39The crypto that Trump has already offloaded, however, did bolster his fortune,

00:43adding hundreds of millions of dollars in liquid assets to his balance sheet.

00:48So how did that happen?

00:50Consider World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture that, over the last few days as of Wednesday,

00:56boosted the incoming president's cash pile by an estimated $290 million.

01:02World Liberty Financial generates revenue by selling tokens.

01:06Its so-called, quote, gold paper, a Trumpified version of a white paper,

01:10explains that these tokens cannot currently be resold and promise no share of future profits,

01:16offering little to people who like to make money on their investments.

01:20The document indicates that the first $30 million of proceeds stay in the project,

01:25which aims to speed up finance and bring crypto to the masses.

01:29After setting aside that initial pile of cash, however, 75% apparently goes to Trump's company,

01:35and 25% gets split between other insiders, including the family of Steve Whitkoff,

01:40Trump's incoming special envoy to the Middle East.

01:44Trump unveiled World Liberty Financial in August, but sales started with a dud.

01:49By November 2nd, customers had only purchased an estimated $15 million worth of tokens,

01:54not enough to fully fund the project, let alone kick off a cut of the revenue to Trump.

01:59But a few weeks after the November 5th election, a crypto entrepreneur named Justin Sun,

02:04who has been battling the Securities and Exchange Commission

02:07over accusations of unregistered crypto sales and fraudulent market manipulation,

02:12announced that he dumped $30 million into the project,

02:16ensuring that Trump would walk away with some money.

02:19Sales trickled in over the ensuing weeks, reaching an estimated $94 million by this past Saturday,

02:25implying a $48 million take for Trump's entity.

02:29Then things went wild.

02:31At 9.18 p.m. ET last Sunday,

02:34World Liberty Financial announced that it had gotten rid of all the coins

02:38that it initially set out to sell last year, apparently raking in $300 million.

02:44An estimated $206 million of the sales came over a 29-hour stretch in the lead-up to the inauguration.

02:51Trump's cut by that point? About $200 million, according to Forbes' calculations.

02:57He did not stop there.

02:59World Liberty Financial then revealed a new supply of tokens for sale,

03:03jacking the price for each from 1.5 cents to 5 cents.

03:07By Tuesday evening, the project had hauled in another $117 million or so,

03:12with an estimated $88 million headed to Trump's company,

03:15bringing his total to roughly $290 million from just one of his crypto ventures.

03:22In addition to World Liberty Financial, the president sells a digital meme named Trump,

03:27which he announced last Friday, just in time to benefit from some inaugural buzz.

03:32The Trump meme coin doesn't even pretend to have a financial purpose.

03:36Its official site tells buyers to, quote,

03:39while warning them that they are not purchasing an investment opportunity.

03:45The pay structure underpinning Trump meme coin is murky,

03:49but potentially even more lucrative for the president than World Liberty Financial.

03:53Through a company named CIC Digital LLC,

03:56Trump teamed up with another business named Fight Fight Fight LLC

04:00and released 200 million memes, priced Wednesday morning at about $43 apiece.

04:06Purchasers appear to get some sort of digital card.

04:09There are still lots of unknowns,

04:11including the average price at which the president and his team sold their batch of Trump,

04:16as well as the ownership split between his company and Fight Fight Fight LLC,

04:20making it impossible to calculate exactly how much Trump has taken in from the bonanza.

04:25If the president's company held even 50% of the venture

04:28and sold all 200 million tokens for an average of $7,

04:33he could have landed a $700 million windfall before taxes.

04:38For full coverage, check out Dan Alexander's piece on Forbes.com.

04:44This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

04:46Thanks for tuning in.

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