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Donald Trump reported income between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion from cryptocurrency-related businesses in 2025, according to financial documents released by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics on Wednesday.
The report, comprising 927 pages, confirms that digital assets have become the president's primary source of wealth, far surpassing his traditional real estate businesses.
The figure varies depending on the agency: Reuters places it at over 1.4 billion, while AFP estimates it to be around 1.2 billion.
Both contrast with the mere 57 million that Trump declared for similar concepts the previous year, which indicates a ninefold increase in just one year.
The two major sources of crypto income
The first major income comes from World Liberty Financial (WLF), a cryptocurrency company co-founded by Trump, his children, and the Witkoff family, special envoy of the White House.
That platform generated almost 800 million dollars: over 520 million from cryptocurrency sales and another 250 million from the sale of shares in the company.
The second major income source is the meme coin $TRUMP, launched two days before the inauguration on January 20, 2025.
Trump declared $635 million in royalties and licensing agreements related to that asset.
According to Reuters, 80% of the total supply of $TRUMP is controlled by companies affiliated with the Trump family, and the buyers of the token lost over $700 million while the family gained at least $616 million.
Other income: media, properties, and branded items
The statement also includes 86.5 million dollars from agreements resulting from legal claims against media outlets and digital platforms:
-16 million of ABC.
-16 million CBS.
-24.5 million from Meta.
-22 million YouTube
-Eight million X.
In the real estate sector, Trump declared approximately 77 million for his Mar-a-Lago club and 122 million for his golf club in Doral, Florida.
It also reported earnings from branded items: $4.7 million in royalties from Trump watches, $1.9 million from the book Save America, and smaller amounts from sneakers, perfumes, a guitar, and the Bible God Bless the USA.
The First Lady Melania Trump declared 10.7 million for an Amazon documentary about her life and six million from NFT sales.
The vice president JD Vance reported earnings between one and five million for his memoirs Hillbilly Elegy.
The debate on the conflict of interest
The publication rekindled criticism regarding the compatibility between Trump's crypto businesses and the policies his administration has promoted in that sector.
Since January 2025, the president signed an executive order to support the digital industry, creating the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve in March of that year, ended lawsuits against companies like Coinbase, and enacted the GENIUS Act, the first federal law regulating stablecoins in the U.S.
Richard Painter, former Chief Ethics Lawyer at the White House during George W. Bush's presidency, was straightforward with the BBC: "Of course this is a conflict of interest."
He described it as "extraordinary" that Trump made 1 billion dollars from cryptocurrencies while serving as president.
Will Walker-Arnott, director of private clients at Raymond James Financial Group, drew a historical comparison:
"Jimmy Carter transferred his peanut farm to a blind trust, and George W. Bush sold his stake in the Texas Rangers before taking office; however, Trump appears to operate in a very different manner."
The response from the White House
The deputy spokesperson Anna Kelly denied any irregularities: "Neither the president nor his family have ever engaged, nor will they ever engage, in conflicts of interest."
Kelly defended that Trump "proudly turned the United States into the world capital of cryptocurrencies," and accused critics of recycling "the same false and worn-out narrative that Democrats and traditional media have been promoting for a decade."
The shift is striking compared to his own words: in 2019, Trump wrote on social media that "the only real currency" of the U.S. was the dollar, and in 2021 he called Bitcoin a "scam" and a "disaster waiting to happen."
Reuters estimates that the Trump family has accumulated at least $2.3 billion in profits from investors in crypto projects since their return to the White House.
According to Forbes, Trump's personal wealth almost tripled between 2024 and 2026, increasing from 2.3 billion to 6.5 billion dollars.
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