Trump Family Crypto Empire Made $2.3 Billion While Everyday Investors Lost the Exact Same Amount

Donald Trump's family has added at least $2.3B (£1.7B) to its fortune from four cryptocurrency ventures since he returned to the White House, a Reuters investigation found. On the other side of those trades, more than a million investors lost the same amount.

The net losses reached $2.3B (£1.7B) at the end of April 2026, the analysis found. They spanned retail buyers of crypto, holders of crypto-linked shares, and people who invested through funds tied to the tokens, and included paper losses on holdings not yet sold.

Each venture followed the same pattern. The Trumps staked little or no money of their own and lent the family name, with the president's sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. leading the promotion. The family collected revenue as buyers piled in. Those buyers absorbed the losses when prices later collapsed.

What Trump's Own Disclosure Showed

The scale of the family's earnings was set out weeks later in an official filing. Trump's annual financial disclosure, released by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics on 30 June 2026, listed more than $1B (£740M) in crypto income for 2025, his largest single earnings source. It recorded more than $500M (£370M) from World Liberty Financial and $635M (£470M) in royalties tied to his memecoin business.

Asked about the earnings, Trump told reporters: 'You know why I'm profiting, because the stock market's going up, everybody's profiting.'

The Four Ventures Behind the Profits

World Liberty Financial, the family's biggest crypto earner, generated more than $1.4B (£1.04B) from sales of governance tokens that hand holders a vote on some decisions. Those tokens have since fallen sharply. The $TRUMP meme coin, launched in January 2025, has dropped about 97% from its peak that month.

The Trump brothers also promoted two listed firms, American Bitcoin and AI Financial Corp, which traded as ALT5 Sigma until April, as ways to gain crypto exposure through shares. Both stocks have collapsed.

Reuters based its findings on blockchain records, thousands of pages of filings, company disclosures, and public statements, and said more than a dozen accounting and crypto specialists judged its estimates reasonable.

The Investors Who Lost Money

Fatime Elrgdawy, a 29-year-old software project engineer in Santa Barbara, California, put $2,000 (£1,480) of her savings into the $TRUMP coin, believing the president's name made it a legitimate investment. Her stake later fell to less than $120 (£90). She said she now thinks it was 'a pump and dump scheme.'

Others reported far heavier losses. Matt, a 45-year-old machinist in Indiana, put $40,000 (£29,600) into ALT5 Sigma shares, about 30% of his portfolio, and they fell 79%, a loss of roughly $32,700 (£24,200).

'I call myself a loser,' he said, adding that he had not given up. A Texas businessman who lost about $800 (£590) on American Bitcoin said he bought it because 'I just feel like Trump knows business.' A Minnesota software engineer said he lost $60,000 (£44,400) of his savings.

Of the 27 investors interviewed, only five reported a profit, and just seven agreed to be named. John Paul Rollert, who teaches behavioural science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, said buyers should have asked whether the family would still profit if a venture failed. If the answer was yes, he said, 'you're now getting closer to what looks like a scam.'

The Warnings and the White House Response

World Liberty stated in fine print on its website that the family would take most of the revenue from token sales, and its marketing warned buyers not to expect a profit.

US regulators spent years cautioning that crypto was volatile and riddled with scams, Reuters noted, though those warnings have faded since Trump returned to office, while authorities abroad have kept issuing them.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said all actions by the president and his administration are taken in the best interest of the American people. Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. did not respond to requests for comment.

No finding of wrongdoing has been made against the family, and the ventures carried disclaimers that their tokens were not investments.