In just over a month, the crypto market has lost $1.2 trillion in value. The steady declines since mid-October have erased much of the gains received by both small and large investors. Among the latter is a very well-known figure: U.S. President Donald Trump, who is also partly responsible for the euphoria the sector experienced until October.
But the Trump effect has completely vanished, with digital assets falling back to levels seen before his term. His direct support of the sector and entry into crypto businesses fueled short-term excitement, but investors have forgotten about that now. Today, the focus of the debate is the potential AI bubble and interest-rate cuts. And the Trump business empire has felt the shock of reality: since September, it has lost at least $1 billion of its fortune (dropping from $7.7 billion at the beginning of September to the current $6.7 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a decline largely due to the Trump family’s growing ties to crypto projects.
The Trump family went all-in on digital assets: they launched tokens, created companies, invested in the industry, pardoned convicted crypto tycoon Changpeng Zhao, and legislated in favor of the sector, pushing major cryptocurrencies to historic highs. But in this market — marked by extreme volatility and speculation — no one is spared, not even the president. A good example of this was the launch, a few days before Trump’s inauguration, of the memecoin $TRUMP, a token with no backing whatsoever beyond being linked to the tycoon’s image. Minutes after its release, euphoria broke out and the token reached a value of more than $15 billion. But like every speculative wave, the excitement was short-lived, and its price plunged by up to 76% within a few hours.
In these past months, $TRUMP has gone through ups and downs, but since mid-August its declines have intensified, and it has lost around 40% of its value; since its launch, it is down 85%. As of today, the size of the Trump family’s stake in the project is unclear; according to Bloomberg estimates, those close to him hold around 40% of all outstanding tokens. At current prices, that stake is worth about $310 million, implying a loss of $117 million since the end of August.
But this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Trump family’s crypto empire. With their flagship project, the crypto platform World Liberty Financial, they issued the WLFI token, which has plunged 38% since early September: those close to the president hold an amount of tokens that reached an accounting value of roughly $6 billion at its peak, but which today are worth half that — about $3.15 billion — according to Bloomberg data. These assets, however, are not included in the agency’s calculations, as they are not traded on organized markets.
Not all their operations have resulted in losses. In August, the company sold part of these assets to Alt5 Sigma Corp, a biotechnology firm turned fintech, where Eric Trump is a board member. From that sale, the Trump firm earned $750 million in cash plus an equity stake. Alt5 Sigma, on the other hand, fared worse: its shares have plunged 78% since then.
World Liberty Financial was the springboard for Trump’s sons to enter the crypto ecosystem. Beyond that platform, they have expanded their influence into other companies tied to digital assets. In March, Eric Trump co-founded American Bitcoin, a crypto-mining company where he serves as chief strategy officer and owns around 7.5% of the firm, which is listed on Nasdaq. Donald Trump Jr. also holds a smaller stake, though the percentage is unknown. The company’s shares hit a high on September 9, pushing the value of Eric Trump’s stake up to $630 million. But since then, they have gone into free fall: they are down 53%, wiping more than $300 million from Eric Trump’s wealth.
With Trump Media, founded by the president, the Trump family has also embraced the crypto industry. In recent months, they have filed applications to launch three exchange-traded funds (ETFs): one linked to Bitcoin, another linked to Bitcoin and Ether, and a third that tracks the price of those two assets along with others such as Solana, Cronos, and XRP. The company, which is not profitable, spent around $2 billion on the main cryptocurrency, according to a July statement, and holds roughly 11,500 bitcoin in its reserves — acquired when it was trading around $115,000 — which implies a loss of about 25%. It also began purchasing units of Cronos (CRO), an obscure token issued by the Crypto.com exchange. By the end of September, it held about $147 million in this asset. Since then, CRO has lost 45% of its value, and Trump Media has followed in its footsteps: it is down 70% this year, and its shares are now hovering near all-time lows.
Even so, the Trumps’ faith in the crypto market remains intact. Through his X account, Eric Trump has encouraged people to buy cryptocurrencies now that they are in a slump, although in a recent interview he advised staying out of crypto “if you can’t handle the volatility.” In a market where sharp swings are the norm, it remains to be seen whether this conviction will become a long-term strategy or end up becoming one of the biggest sources of volatility for their own empire — one capable of testing the patience and temperament of the president, which are also highly unpredictable.
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