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The Crypto industry spent $238 million to buy the 2024 election, and another $18 million on Trump’s inauguration. That’s $256 million total.
The Crypto industry spent $238 million to buy the 2024 election, and another $18 million on Trump’s inauguration—that’s $256 million total. [1][2]
Just nine billionaires involved in the crypto industry account for $212 million in 2024 political contributions. As of October 2025, these nine have seen their collective wealth surge by $19 billion since 2004. That’s an 8,862% return on investment. [3]
Trump is personally benefiting from the crypto business and is using all his powers as president to boost the industry, even when it contradicts his other supposed priorities. In his second term he has promoted use of stablecoins (crypto tokens pegged to the dollar and supposedly backed by liquid assets, like US treasuries), even though they have been used to finance Hamas. Soon after his inauguration he pardoned Ross Ulbricht, founder of dark web crypto marketplace Silk Road, who was convicted for enabling more than $200 million worth of drug sales. [4]
The crypto industry claims that it is all about democratizing access to finance and investment but in fact it is a rich person’s game. Although about one in six American adults currently own crypto, ownership is highly concentrated: the largest 1% of bitcoin holdings account for 90% of the total. [5]
The Crypto Bros
These are the nine billionaires who helped fund crypto’s political take over of Washington by supporting Trump’s campaign and inauguration, and the crypto-focused Fairshake Political Action committee:
Brian Armstrong
Founder, Coinbase
(largest crypto exchange)
$71 million in political donations
$2.3 billion wealth increase since 2024 (October 2025)
Image source: Coinbase
Chris Larsen
Co-Founder, Ripple
(XRP crypto coin issuer)
$50 million in political donations
$7.2 billion wealth increase since 2024
Image source: @chrislarsensf on Twitter
Howard Lutnick
CEO, Cantor Fitzgerald
(underwrites Tether, the largest stablecoin issuer)
$16 million in political donations
Appointed Secretary of Commerce
Marc Andreessen
Co-Founder, Andreessen Horowitz
(private equity firm with major crypto investments)
$48 million in political donations
$100 million wealth increase
Image source: Andreessen Horowitz
Cameron & Tyler Winklevoss
Founders, Gemini crypto exchange
$9.4 million in political donations
$3.6 billion wealth increase since 2024
Image source: General Assembly
Jeremy Allair
CEO, Circle
(issuer of the second-largest stablecoin)
$2 million in political donations
Image source: Circle
Fred Ehrsam
Co-Founder, Coinbase
(largest crypto exchange)
$1 million in political donations
$900 million wealth increase since 2024
Image source: Paradigm
Michael Novogratz
Founder, Galaxy Digital Holdings
(crypto investment company)
$1 million in political donations
$4.9 billion wealth increase since 2024
Image source: Galaxy
Crypto bros created and funded the pro-crypto Fairshake Political Action Committee, which spent $40 million to defeat leading crypto critic Senator Sherrod Brown. [6] At least 22 Democratic Congresspeople took Fairshake money in 2024, including Elissa Slotkin and Ruben Gallego, who took $10 million each, making them complicit in the Brown take-down.
Trump Learns to Love Crypto
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Trump’s initial skepticism about crypto and recent conversion
In 2021, Trump told Fox Business that crypto was a “disaster waiting to happen” and that the United States should “regulate very, very high.” [6]
But after he was frozen out of the conventional financial system in response to his role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol, he and his sons realized they could use crypto to sell influence and monetize the family name.
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Trump’s pre-election promises to the industry
At a June 27 2024 Bitcoin conference in Nashville, Trump told attendees that elected again to the presidency, he would make the United States “the crypto capital of the planet.” [7] He also promised to fire government regulators who have been critical of the industry.
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Trump's post-election actions to boost the industry
Created federal crypto reserve, which boosted prices for crypto, including coins in which the Trump family was heavily invested.
Appointed crypto investor, and Trump fundraiser, David Sacks as crypto and AI czar.
Appointed Paul Atkins, former adviser to crypto industry players, as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Dropped prosecutions of at least ten crypto firms for securities fraud including Coinbase, Kraken, Ripple, Binance, and Justin Sun and disbanded DOJ’s crypto enforcement team.
Pardoned Ross Ulbricht, founder of Silk Road, a bitcoin-enabled black market in narcotics, hacking services, and other illicit transactions. In 2015, a federal court gave Ulbricht a life sentence for drug distribution and money laundering.
Relaxed tax reporting rules for crypto brokers and customer tracking obligations for stablecoin issuers.
Issued an executive order penalizing banks that refuse to do business with crypto firms.
Pushed Congress to pass the GENIUS Act, which created weak regulatory standards for stablecoins and placed no checks on Trump's efforts to personally profit from stablecoin ventures. On X Trump demanded that the House of Representatives “Get it to my desk, ASAP — NO DELAYS, NO ADD ONS." [8]
The price of bitcoin shot up 50% within a month of the election. When Bitcoin crossed $100,000 for the first time, Trump took the credit, posting “YOU’RE WELCOME!!!”on Truth Social.
Post-election crypto-profiteering by Trump and his family
🪙 $TRUMP Memecoin
The $TRUMP memecoin was launched 3 days before the 2025 inauguration.
Within two days, it became the 19th most valuable form of cryptocurrency in the world, with a total trading value of nearly $13 billion.
Trump affiliates controlled an additional 800 million tokens, whose value peaked at over $56 billion, temporarily giving Trump a net worth of $63.8 billion.
But the price soon collapsed—a classic pump-and-dump scheme. According to CNBC, 764,000 wallets lost money while 58 wallets made more than $10 million apiece totaling roughly $1.1 billion in gains. [9] Meanwhile Trump netted $320 million from transaction fees. [10]
“The memecoins have proved to be a multimillion-dollar leap from the Trump-branded Bibles, guitars and watches that the Trumps sold during last year’s campaign.” —The New York Times, July 3, 2025
Actualized profits from the meme coin transactions were $385 million.
In May, Trump hosted a dinner and tour of the White House for the 220 largest holders of his meme coin.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's Donald Sherman described the dinner as "one of the most blatant and appalling instances of selling access to the presidency." Elizabeth Warren described the dinner as an "orgy of corruption." [11]
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World Liberty Financial
World Liberty Financial is a crypto company, 60 percent owned by the Trump family, which began operations in September 2024, selling a crypto “stablecoin” called $WLFI. [12]
Before the election, it sold only $2.7 million worth of $WLFI tokens. After the election investors bought $550 million,[13] netting the Trump family over $400 million. [14]
The GENIUS Act boosted the value of stablecoins, including $WLFI.
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American Bitcoin
ABTC is a publicly traded bitcoin mining and treasury company, part owned by Eric and Donald Trump, which launched in April as a partnership with Canadian energy infrastructure company Hut 8. [15]
On Sep. 3, 2025, ABTC was listed on NASDAQ after merging with Gryphon Digital Mining. Eric Trump’s 7.5% stake in the company was worth $548 million. [16]
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Trump Media and Technology Group
Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns Truth Social, despite consistently losing money, has used the Trump name to raise $2.5 billion to create a Bitcoin company treasury. TMTG is also planning to launch Trump-branded crypto investment funds. [17]
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According to Forbes, Trump’s net worth has almost trebled since early 2024 from $2.3 billion to $6.7 billion, mostly due to appreciation of his crypto investments.
In August 2025, the anti-corruption group Accountable.US estimated that Trump might have "about $11.6 billion in uncounted crypto assets," forming three-quarters of his total wealth. [18]
Influence Peddling and Conflicts of Interest
"
World Liberty Financial’s “dealings have created conflicts of interest with no precedent in modern U.S. history. Some of the investors who bought $WLFI coins are foreign nationals who have been barred from supporting a president via campaign contributions or donations to the inaugural fund.”
The New York Times [19]
"
President Trump's involvement in [crypto], as he strips financial regulators of their independence…presents an extraordinary conflict of interest that could create unprecedented risks to our financial system."
Letter to financial regulators signed by Senators Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, and Chris Van Hollen [20]
Trump claims that his family’s business activities pose no conflict of interest because they are managed by his sons.
Justin Sun, the crypto billionaire who runs the TRON crypto platform and achieved fame for buying and eating a $6.2-million banana duct-taped to a wall, spent $75 million on WLFI tokens. [21] Sun was being sued by the SEC for securities fraud. The SEC dropped the case against him.
On May 1, 2025, Abu Dhabi-based investment fund MGX announced purchase of $2 billion WLFI coins. MGX is run by Emirati royal family member Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Two weeks later, Trump declared that the U.S. would provide the United Arab Emirates with the advanced chips needed for a vast new artificial-intelligence data center, despite long-standing concerns regarding the U.A.E.’s close ties to China. The Trump family profited $243 million from the deal. [22]
After Justin Sun bought $75 million of $WLFI tokens, the SEC dropped their case against him.
Image source: Calvin Sit, Bloomberg, Getty Images
Trump meeting with Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the White House in March 2025.
Trump’s crypto and AI czar David Sacks helped negotiate the deal. Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, whose son is a partner in World Liberty Financial, also played a key role.
Nearly 70 Trump administration officials and nominees held cryptocurrency or investments in blockchain or digital-asset companies at the time of their selection, as opposed to none in the Biden administration. One-third of Trump's cabinet are invested in crypto. J.D. Vance and Scott Bessent own up to $500,000 each. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. holds up to $5 million. [23]
📣
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Sources:
1. https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/crypto-industry-election-spending-tallies-least-238m-surpassing-traditional-giants.
2. https://fortune.com/crypto/2025/04/21/donald-trump-inauguration-fund-crypto-coinbase-ripple-circle-18-million/.
3. Donations figures are from Federal Election Commission filings as reported by OpenSecrets. Net worth figures from Forbes.
4. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-signs-full-unconditional-pardon-silk-road-creator-ross-ulbricht?msockid=31f0d44a0c276d58056fc2460d8a6c83.
5. Bitcoin’s ‘One Percent’ Control Lion’s Share of the Cryptocurrency’s Wealth,” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 20, 2021
6. https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/crypto-potentially-a-disaster-waiting-to-happen-trumps.
7. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/us/politics/trump-crypto-lobbying.html.
8. https://cointelegraph.com/news/donald-trump-urges-quick-passing-of-genuis-stablecoin-bill
9. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/06/trump-meme-coin-crypto.html.
10. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/05/09/trump-family-profited-usd320m-on-memecoin-despite-87-decline-since-day-one.
11. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/elizabeth-warren-calls-donald-trump-s-148m-memecoin-dinner-an-orgy-of-corruption/ar-AA1FkWWp.
12. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/29/us/politics/trump-crypto-world-liberty-financial.html.
13. https://coinpushttps://accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/2025-04-30-A.US-World-Liberty-Financial-Foreign-Buyers.pdfh.app/crypto-exchanges-list-trump-wlfi-token/.
14. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/offbeat/trump-crypto-project-raises-550m-in-wlfi-token-sale-defying-early-stumbles/ar-AA1AVEjC.
15. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/how-trump-family-took-over-crypto-firm-it-raised-hundreds-millions-2025-03-31/.
16. https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/eric-trumps-548-million-crypto-stake-is-worth-more-than-trumps-golf-empire-9214703.
17. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-company-announces-2-5-billion-bitcoin-treasury-deal-ahead-of-annual-conference/ar-AA1FA08f.
18. accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Accountable.US-Crypto-IP-Memo.pdf.
19. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/us/politics/trump-cryptocurrency-usd1-dubai-conference-announcement.html.
20. https://www.banking.senate.gov/newsroom/minority/warren-wyden-van-hollen-colleagues-question-fed-and-occ-on-serious-risks-posed-by-donald-trump-regulating-his-own-stablecoin.
21. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-spent-62-million-banana-duct-taped-wall-says-going-eat-rcna181172.
22. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/us/politics/trump-uae-chips-witkoff-world-liberty.html.
23. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-allies-crypto-assets-b2791261.html.
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