Trump's Crypto Empire Surpasses Real Estate in Paper Value

The Trump family’s paper wealth increased by as much as $6 billion following the trading debut of World Liberty Financial’s token, WLFI, which began trading on major exchanges. The launch marked a pivotal moment for the family’s cryptocurrency portfolio, establishing a market value for their holdings of nearly a quarter of the token supply. According to the Wall Street Journal, the family’s stake, valued at the high end of trading prices, now represents their most valuable single asset [1].

WLFI’s trading debut resembled a public listing, allowing holders of tokens from private sales to trade their assets for the first time. In the first hour of trading, approximately $1 billion worth of WLFI tokens changed hands on platforms such as Binance, with prices fluctuating between 24 cents and 30 cents. However, by early Tuesday, the price had retreated to $0.23, reflecting early market volatility. Despite the drop, the token’s initial listing solidified World Liberty’s role as a central component of the Trump family’s expanding cryptocurrency interests [1].

The Trump family, including Donald Trump, holds 22.5 billion WLFI tokens, which were unlocked on Monday as part of a planned move to establish a circulating supply. This unlock briefly pushed the price to $0.40 before retreating to around $0.21. The valuation of their holdings reached about $5 billion at the time of the price peak, according to Coin Telegraph. The family, along with their business partners, has been steadily increasing their presence in the digital asset space through various ventures, including a stablecoin and a memecoin linked to the Trump brand [2].

Early investors in WLFI have also seen significant gains. Those who purchased tokens during the presale at 1.5 cents each saw their holdings appreciate to over 15 times that value. However, selling restrictions limit early investors to selling only up to 20% of their tokens at this stage. This controlled liquidity strategy is part of World Liberty’s broader financial engineering, which includes taking control of a publicly listed firm and raising $750 million in cash from investors to repurchase its own tokens [1].

The Trump family’s growing influence in the crypto space has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers and ethics experts, who argue that their business activities could pose conflicts of interest given the president’s regulatory role in shaping the industry’s future. Critics have raised concerns about the potential for financial influence over policy decisions. Meanwhile, the White House has maintained that Trump’s assets are held in a trust managed by his children, and that there are no conflicts of interest [3].

World Liberty’s token launch has added to the Trump family’s substantial crypto wealth, surpassing the value of their traditional real estate holdings in paper terms. In addition to WLFI, the family holds significant stakes in other digital assets, including approximately 8% of the memecoin $TRUMP and more than half of the shares in Trump Media, a publicly traded company valued at around $2.5 billion. These developments underscore the family’s strategic shift toward cryptocurrency as a core component of their financial portfolio [1].

Source:

[1] Trump Family's Paper Wealth Swells By $6B On WLFI Trading Debut (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-family-paper-wealth-swells-062806737.html)

[2] Trump Family's World Liberty Stake Surges To $5B After Unlock (https://cointelegraph.com/news/trump-family-world-liberty-financial-token-unlock)

[3] Trump's World Liberty token falls in first day of trading (https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/01/trumps-world-liberty-token-first-day-of-trading.html)