Inside The Trump Family’s Global Crypto Cash Machine

DUBAI, Oct 28 (Reuters) – Eric Trump was in Dubai on household enterprise. Assembly with a Chinese language businessman and his associates on the sidelines of a cryptocurrency convention in Might this 12 months, the son of U.S. President Donald J. Trump ran by means of his regular speaking factors in regards to the inefficiency of conventional banks and his personal well-known father’s run-ins with financiers.

Then got here the pitch. Purchase not less than $20 million of “governance tokens” within the Trump household’s crypto enterprise, World Liberty Monetary, and grow to be a part of a enterprise that Eric Trump predicted would quickly embody the way forward for finance in America, in line with an individual aware of the assembly.

To some in that small gathering, the expertise Eric Trump’s crew described for World Liberty appeared “rudimentary,” the individual mentioned. On the time, World Liberty was a fledgling enterprise. It hadn’t but created the cryptocurrency-based finance platform it promised after its September 2024 launch. It nonetheless hasn’t.

Even so, the pitch apparently labored. On June 26, an obscure entity referred to as Aqua1 Basis, which mentioned it was based mostly within the United Arab Emirates, introduced it was shopping for $100 million of cryptocurrency tokens from World Liberty. It was the only largest identified buy of the so-called WLFI tokens on the time.

The Chinese language businessman who met with Eric Trump in Dubai was Guren “Bobby” Zhou, who has govt roles in a number of companies and who’s below investigation in Britain for cash laundering, in line with that nation’s Nationwide Crime Company and a doc filed in an immigration case at London’s Royal Courts of Justice.

Zhou didn’t reply on to requests for remark for this text. In an announcement emailed to Reuters, an entity calling itself Aqua Labs Funding LLC mentioned Zhou was its co-founder and described itself as an Abu Dhabi entity of Aqua1 Basis. The assertion mentioned Aqua1 Basis’s funding in World Liberty tokens “was a industrial determination per its concentrate on advancing regulated, scalable digital-asset ecosystems.” Zhou’s relationship to Aqua1 Basis has not been beforehand reported.

Aqua1 Basis didn’t reply to requests for remark. Nor did Eric Trump.

The Dubai assembly, reported right here for the primary time, was only one cease on a globetrotting funding roadshow the 2 elder sons of President Trump – Eric and Donald Trump Jr. – launched into across the time of their father’s election to a second time period. In Europe, the Center East and Asia, they’ve been selling World Liberty and different ventures that funnel traders’ money to Trump household companies, identified collectively because the Trump Group. The Trump brothers’ efforts have been a whopping success. Within the first half of this 12 months, the Trump Group’s earnings soared 17-fold to $864 million from $51 million a 12 months earlier, in line with Reuters calculations based mostly on the president’s official disclosures, property information, monetary information launched in courtroom instances, crypto commerce data and different sources. Of the first-half complete, $802 million – greater than 90% – got here from Trump crypto ventures, together with gross sales of World Liberty tokens.

That $864 million payday represents precise earnings – money flowing, free and clear, into Trump household coffers. Reuters’ calculations have been reviewed by half a dozen crypto and actual property specialists and an authorized accountant who has studied the U.S. Inside Income Service’s strategy to crypto.

The Trumps’ first-half crypto earnings dwarfed what the household earned from its conventional companies – $33 million from the president’s golf golf equipment and resorts and $23 million for licensing his identify to abroad actual property builders, in line with the Reuters estimates. Greater than half the Trumps’ earnings – $463 million – got here from gross sales of World Liberty tokens alone, together with as much as $75 million from Aqua1’s token buy. On its web site, World Liberty says a Trump Group entity receives 75% of the income from the token gross sales by means of its affiliation with World Liberty. The household additionally made $336 million from gross sales of a Trump meme coin, $TRUMP, Reuters calculated, utilizing assumptions vetted by 5 analysts. On account of an absence of transparency within the Trump meme coin enterprise, estimates of earnings from the cash carry a better diploma of uncertainty than these for WLFI token gross sales. The Trumps are minting a trove of arduous money from digital property backed, to this point, by little greater than the Trump identify. World Liberty tokens, like most crypto merchandise, are registered on digital ledgers referred to as blockchains. However WLFI tokens provide holders little past a restricted say within the enterprise’s plans, not like governance tokens for related initiatives. And meme cash just like the $TRUMP coin are basically collectibles whose worth displays the recognition of the web joke, meme or persona related to them.

World Liberty Monetary didn’t reply on to requests for remark for this text. In a letter to Reuters, Timothy Parlatore, a lawyer for the corporate, mentioned: “WLFI tokens usually are not securities; they’re digital property with actual utility, together with governance rights that profit holders because the platform grows.” He additionally mentioned: “The Alleged Valuation and Revenue Evaluation of WLFI Is Inaccurate and Deceptive.”

In a subsequent e-mail, Parlatore declined to offer additional specifics on the advantages to holders of World Liberty governance tokens or his critique of the Reuters evaluation.

The soar within the Trumps’ earnings represents “a large pivot” for the household enterprise, mentioned Carter Davis, an assistant professor of finance at The Ohio State College who has studied cryptocurrency pricing and who reviewed the Reuters calculations. “Even in the event you undergo and also you do essentially the most conservative estimate…it’s fairly wild that you find yourself with such an enormous fraction of the earnings coming from crypto.”

The identities of most consumers of the WLFI tokens are hidden behind opaque “pockets” addresses – the distinctive identifiers traders use as keys to entry and handle their holdings. Among the many few main consumers whose identities are identified – a mixture of international and U.S. traders – most have histories of authorized and regulatory entanglements associated to their enterprise endeavors. And because the Trump brothers’ travels over the previous 12 months present, international traders have been a significant goal for token gross sales.

Reuters interviewed half a dozen international crypto entrepreneurs who met with the Trump brothers. 5 of them mentioned they sought out the youthful Trumps for enterprise alternatives due to their proximity to the 79-year-old president and hopes of cashing in on his political and monetary energy. For a lot of different traders, the Trumps’ involvement signaled an opportunity to capitalize on the household’s identify. Dorji Rabten’s Seoul-based enterprise funding agency, Oddiyana Ventures, purchased an undisclosed quantity of WLFI tokens in January. Rabten mentioned he by no means met the Trump sons, however the household’s involvement was central to his funding. “Within the first very second the place we noticed the challenge, we thought it’s going to be very enormous, clearly, given the very fact it’s a president’s sons taking over that challenge,” Rabten instructed Reuters in September.

The alignment of the Trump household’s crypto initiatives with President Trump’s public function as overseer of U.S. crypto coverage constitutes a battle of curiosity unprecedented in fashionable presidential historical past, authorities ethics specialists mentioned.

“These persons are not pouring cash into coffers of the Trump household enterprise due to the brothers’ acumen,” mentioned Washington College legislation professor Kathleen Clark, who focuses on authorities ethics and was commenting on Reuters’ findings. “They’re doing it as a result of they need freedom from authorized constraints and impunity that solely the president can ship.”

Nonetheless, the ethicists mentioned, except the Trump brothers are explicitly promising entry to or favorable remedy from the president of their gross sales pitches, they’re breaking no legal guidelines. “It’s authorized however unethical,” mentioned Richard Painter, who served as chief ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush and is now a professor on the College of Minnesota Legislation Faculty.

Not one of the greater than a dozen individuals Reuters spoke with who had met with the Trump brothers or their companions recounted any of them explicitly providing presidential entry or favors in return for investing of their household companies. The White Home has repeatedly denied any battle of curiosity, saying that upon taking workplace, the president ended his involvement in his companies after putting them in a belief managed by his youngsters.

Nonetheless, as beneficiary of the belief that controls the Trump Group, the president can have the cash the household is now making at his disposal when he leaves workplace.

A White Home spokeswoman referred Reuters to the Trump Group for remark. The Trump Group’s chief authorized officer didn’t reply to a request for remark. Nor did Eric Trump or Donald Trump Jr.

Parlatore, the World Liberty lawyer, mentioned any suggestion that investments within the agency are motivated by a want to get nearer to President Trump “is a whole lie.” He identified that token purchases on secondary markets – versus direct purchases from the corporate – don’t profit the World Liberty crew.

World Liberty advertises its plans on its web site – an app for making crypto deposits, for instance, and a crypto-backed borrowing facility. However for now, as a pure enterprise play in a crowded discipline, it has little to advocate it.

The enterprise has but to unveil what it heralded final 12 months as its core enterprise: a peer-to-peer financing platform able to difficult conventional banks. Since March, its management has actively promoted a stablecoin – a cryptocurrency whose worth is pegged to conventional property like {dollars} or gold – referred to as USD1. Whereas the stablecoin’s identify belongs to World Liberty, the coin is issued and supported by one other firm that pays World Liberty a share of the coin’s income. The coin’s circulation is dwarfed by that of market leaders.

Additional, whereas WLFI holders can vote on restricted governance issues, the platform shouldn’t be designed to allow them to award themselves a share of income. That’s uncommon amongst peer-to-peer crypto lending platforms, in line with two teachers who examine crypto markets and a Reuters overview of 4 of the most important platforms’ phrases of enterprise.

In July, holders voted to permit buying and selling of the tokens on crypto exchanges. World Liberty later mentioned that solely early consumers can be allowed to promote, capped at not more than 20% of their tokens. After buying and selling started on September 1, the token worth rose from an preliminary 31 cents to 46 cents after which sank about 65% three days later. It now trades at round 14 cents.

In his letter to Reuters, Parlatore mentioned broader adoption of the stablecoin and different World Liberty merchandise “straight advantages WLFI governance token holders by means of established mechanics, which, whereas sophisticated, are factual and already operational.” Requested for particulars of these mechanics and the way they’d profit token holders, he mentioned in a subsequent letter: “Your proposed article relies completely on false sources and a misinterpretation of primary rules.”

As just lately as 2021, Donald J. Trump, talking to Fox Enterprise, criticized cryptocurrencies as a menace to U.S. greenback supremacy and mentioned bitcoin “looks like a rip-off.” Three years later, his tackle crypto had modified. Simply weeks earlier than the November 2024 presidential election, he kicked off gross sales of World Liberty tokens with a social media publish: “That is YOUR likelihood to assist form the way forward for finance,” he wrote.

Since Trump’s second inauguration, his administration, reversing lots of its predecessor’s positions, has been clearing the best way for the crypto trade’s progress within the U.S. The Justice Division axed its crypto enforcement crew. Regulators scrapped steerage warning banks to be cautious about crypto-related dangers. And the Securities and Change Fee has paused or dropped lawsuits in high-profile instances towards crypto companies. For its half, World Liberty conveys the impression of a presidential connection. On the “Meet our crew” part of its web site, the agency shows a portrait of President Trump, labeling him a “co-founder emeritus.” The opposite co-founder emeritus proven is Steven Witkoff, a billionaire actual property investor and President Trump’s particular envoy to the Center East and for peace missions. (A small footnote says each males have been “eliminated upon taking workplace.”)

Don Jr., Eric and their youthful brother, Barron Trump, are introduced as co-founders, as are Witkoff’s two sons, Zach and Alex. Zach Witkoff has been a ubiquitous presence with the Trump brothers as they’ve traveled the globe to tout tokens.

“With out the Trump identify, you wouldn’t see World Liberty Monetary elevating this sort of cash,” mentioned Santa Clara College finance professor Seoyoung Kim, who focuses on crypto analytics. Kim mentioned she noticed nothing of specific worth within the applied sciences and companies introduced by World Liberty, describing its worth proposition as “being a part of the membership.”

The enterprise has reworked the Trump household’s wealth. Because of persevering with token gross sales, the Trumps’ crypto earnings is now approaching and will even exceed $1 billion.

In early August, for instance, about three weeks earlier than WLFI started buying and selling, a tiny Nasdaq-listed blockchain companies firm, Alt5 Sigma, mentioned it had raised $750 million from traders to assist purchase 7.5% of all World Liberty tokens. In company filings for the deal, Alt5 Sigma mentioned that the $750 million got here from institutional traders and that the majority of it was used to purchase tokens from World Liberty. Primarily based on that data, the Trumps stood to achieve about $500 million.

“It’s an extremely thrilling time,” Eric Trump instructed Fox Enterprise on August 13, a day after the cope with Alt5 Sigma was finalized.

For the reason that deal was introduced, Alt5 Sigma’s share worth has dropped by 75%. That decline didn’t have an effect on the money the Trumps have already comprised of the deal.

The Trumps’ money earnings from crypto doesn’t even embody the worth of the huge crypto property the household has amassed previously 12 months.

These property embody $TRUMP meme cash and World Liberty tokens the household nonetheless holds. Additionally they embody shares in publicly listed Trump Media & Expertise Group, which runs Trump’s social-media platform Truth Social and has expanded into crypto. These holdings are weak to wild worth swings, are vulnerable to worth collapse if main holders promote, and might be topic to restrictions on gross sales and transfers. Nonetheless, they carry an estimated worth that – on paper, not less than – may add greater than $11 billion to the household’s fortune.

World Liberty started promoting WLFI tokens in October final 12 months to each U.S. and international traders. However preliminary gross sales within the U.S. have been gradual. SEC guidelines gave solely rich traders entry to the tokens, which shut out small retail consumers who might need needed to purchase them as supporters of the president, as they’ve carried out with scores of different merchandise licensed by the Trump Group, from Trump-endorsed bibles to sneakers to electrical guitars.

Quickly, as President-elect Trump’s second time period approached, World Liberty was vulnerable to shedding entry to the international consumers who have been sustaining token gross sales. The household’s self-imposed moral tips for Trump’s first time period prohibited them from searching for new enterprise outdoors the U.S. Then, days earlier than his second inauguration, the Trump Group launched revised tips that jettisoned that constraint.

That labored. In a overview carried out for Reuters of the 50 wallets holding the most important quantity of World Liberty tokens as of September 15, crypto analytics agency Nansen discovered that 36 wallets – with holdings valued at $804 million – have been seemingly linked to abroad consumers. Solely 4 wallets have been linked to U.S. traders, amounting to $889 million. However most of that quantity, $781 million, was held by Alt5 Sigma; an extra $35 million was held by a World Liberty safety adviser. Nansen was unable to find out whether or not the remaining 10 wallets have been linked to Individuals or foreigners based mostly on blockchain knowledge on the time of study.

Parlatore, the World Liberty lawyer, mentioned that extra foreigners than Individuals have purchased crypto as a result of there are extra of them, and that crypto has increased penetration charges outdoors the U.S. He added: “It was principally tougher to promote WLFI tokens to American traders, particularly initially, as the principles have been very restrictive within the final administration when the token sale started.” Among the many largest consumers of the tokens is Justin Solar, a Hong Kong-based crypto billionaire. The SEC in 2023 charged Solar with fraud, promoting unregistered crypto securities and hiding funds to celebrities to advertise his merchandise. With Trump again within the White Home, the fee paused the case in February, simply weeks after Solar introduced he had elevated his complete purchases of World Liberty tokens to $75 million. Underneath the phrases of World Liberty’s money distribution settlement with its co-founders, Solar’s token purchases would have despatched $56 million to the Trump household.

Justin Solar didn’t reply to a request for remark. An SEC spokesperson declined to remark. The investigation stays paused.

Overseas pursuits juiced the Trump household’s earnings by means of the World Liberty USD1 stablecoin, too. In Might, MGX, a state-controlled Abu Dhabi funding firm, used the coin to purchase a $2 billion fairness stake in Binance, the world’s largest crypto alternate. The deal nonetheless accounts for three-quarters of all USD1 cash in circulation, although World Liberty has cited it as proof of “extraordinary, worldwide demand” for the stablecoin.

The board chairman of MGX is Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s nationwide safety adviser and a brother of UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed. The $2 billion MGX paid to create the stablecoins is held in money equivalents similar to U.S. Treasury securities. World Liberty says on its web site that these securities kick off curiosity funds to a few of its associates, together with one 38%-owned by the Trump Group. That earnings stream of about $80 million yearly may yield thousands and thousands for the Trumps this 12 months, based mostly on Reuters calculations, although due to the shortage of public reporting, it’s not doable to know the ultimate determine.

The deal sparked criticism of what was broadly considered as an egregious battle of curiosity. Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley requested the Workplace of Authorities Ethics to launch an inquiry, warning that MGX’s buy utilizing the stablecoin “might violate the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Structure,” which prohibits officeholders from receiving funds or presents from international governments.

Eric Ueland, the Trump-appointed performing head of the Workplace of Authorities Ethics, an unbiased company within the govt department, didn’t reply to a request for remark. In response to a follow-up request to the ethics workplace’s spokesperson, Reuters obtained an automatic message: “On account of a lapse in appropriations,” a reference to the U.S. authorities shutdown, “I can be unable to course of requests or reply to inquiries.”

An MGX spokesperson referred Reuters to a earlier assertion which mentioned the corporate selected USD1 after evaluating a number of stablecoins, “inspecting such elements as enterprise suitability, the jurisdiction and forex of property backing the stablecoin, and compliance historical past.” It famous that the stablecoin buy didn’t represent an funding in World Liberty and that MGX used the stablecoin to finish a transaction wherein the vendor had requested use of cryptocurrency. MGX’s stablecoin funding additionally represented a turnabout for Binance within the U.S. – from felony convictions two years in the past to a task in a deal that financially advantages the U.S. president.

In late 2023, the alternate pleaded responsible in federal courtroom to failing to take care of an efficient anti-money-laundering program and paid a penalty of $4.3 billion. Its billionaire founder, China-born Changpeng Zhao, served almost 4 months in jail after pleading responsible to the identical cost and stepped down as CEO, however stored his Binance stake.

In Might, shortly after the announcement that MGX was utilizing the Trump stablecoin to put money into Binance, Zhao instructed a podcaster that he had utilized for a pardon from the Trump administration however had by no means spoken to the president. Final week, the White Home introduced that President Trump had pardoned Zhao, saying that the earlier administration of President Joe Biden “severely broken the US’ status as a worldwide chief in expertise and innovation.”

After the pardon was introduced, Zhao posted on social media that he was grateful to the president and would “do all the things we will to assist make America the Capital of Crypto.”

Reuters couldn’t decide whether or not World Liberty had any contact with Binance earlier than the latter accepted MGX’s funding utilizing USD1 stablecoins. The White Home didn’t reply to Reuters’ questions on whether or not the stablecoin deal and Zhao’s pardon have been linked.

MGX mentioned it “didn’t search or obtain assurances from any get together outdoors the atypical course of enterprise for such a transaction.” The Trump household and its enterprise representatives didn’t reply to requests for remark.

Binance and Zhao didn’t reply to requests for remark. In a letter to Reuters earlier than the pardon was introduced, their legal professionals mentioned Binance and Zhao are “clear” that they “carried out themselves completely correctly with regard to the MGX funding” and that “any suggestion that the MGX funding, or using USD1 for it, would possibly in any method be linked to any request Mr Zhao would possibly make for a Presidential pardon, can be wholly with out basis.” They mentioned their purchasers “didn’t management the cost methodology chosen by MGX for its funding in Binance.”

The notion that Trump household companies may present a path to the president was on show on April 27, when Donald Trump Jr. landed on the airport in Sofia, Bulgaria. He descended the steps from a Gulfstream enterprise jet to a purple carpet on the tarmac and was whisked away in a protracted motorcade of black automobiles.

It wasn’t a state go to. It was a cease on a tour of Jap European capitals the place Don Jr. attended a sequence of conferences titled “Trump Enterprise Imaginative and prescient 2025.”

The Sofia occasion was sponsored by Nexo, a crypto agency based mostly within the Cayman Islands that left the U.S. market after the SEC fined it $45 million for providing an unregistered securities product. Because the convention in Sofia acquired below method, Antoni Trenchev, Nexo’s co-founder and a former member of the Bulgarian Nationwide Meeting, joined Don Jr. on stage. Throughout the occasion, Trenchev introduced that Nexo meant to renew operations within the U.S.

In an announcement despatched to Reuters, Nexo mentioned the announcement “was not linked to Mr. Trenchev’s interactions with Donald Trump Jr. or the President of the US.” The corporate additionally mentioned it doesn’t have a confirmed timeline for returning to the U.S., however identified that “the regulatory surroundings has begun to shift.”

By early July, Nexo had strengthened its ties to the Trump household. That month, Nexo grew to become a lead sponsor of a golf championship held at a Trump-owned golf course close to Aberdeen, Scotland. Just a few weeks later, President Trump hosted Trenchev over lunch at his Scottish golf resort, the place the 2 mentioned politics and their “joint imaginative and prescient for crypto within the U.S.” throughout a day on the hyperlinks, as Trenchev later posted on X with an image of him and the president.

“Thanks sincerely for what you’re doing for all of us,” Trenchev wrote, tagging the U.S. president’s X deal with.

Nexo mentioned its sponsorship of the Scottish occasion was a part of a broader partnership with Europe’s main golf tour. The corporate mentioned its monetary contribution to the partnership was eight figures however declined to be extra particular. It additionally mentioned it didn’t know what portion of its contribution, if any, would go to the Trump household.

A supply aware of the matter mentioned Nexo agreed to pay about $10 million below the three-year deal.

On Might 1, 4 days after Don Jr. obtained a purple carpet welcome in Sofia, his brother Eric took the stage in Dubai with World Liberty co-founder Zach Witkoff at a crypto convention referred to as TOKEN2049. There, they introduced the MGX stablecoin deal and excoriated the normal banking system as antiquated and damaged. “We’re going to rework the monetary world,” Eric instructed the group.

Appearing as a moderator was Justin Solar. On the time, he was the most important identified investor in World Liberty tokens. That might quickly change. Hours earlier than strolling on stage, Eric Trump had made his pitch for getting World Liberty tokens to Guren “Bobby” Zhou and some different crypto fanatics.

Zhou had just lately served as chairman of the UAE workplaces of a British Virgin Islands-registered crypto agency referred to as Web3Port. He introduced with him to the assembly a checkered authorized historical past.

Earlier than transferring to the UAE, Zhou lived in Britain, the place he was arrested in 2021 below suspicion of cash laundering, in line with a February 2024 courtroom judgment in a separate case involving his UK immigration standing. The judgment says Zhou denied any wrongdoing. Britain’s Nationwide Crime Company, which handed the case to prosecutors in 2022, confirmed to Reuters that Zhou stays below investigation.

Moreover, in three separate civil instances between 2017 and 2023, Zhou and a member of the family have been discovered by Chinese language courts to have did not repay loans totaling 19.4 million yuan (about $2.4 million at present alternate charges), in line with courtroom judgments reviewed by Reuters. A kind of judgments notes that Zhou failed to look in courtroom and was tried in absentia.

Zhou didn’t reply to requests for remark. The Aqua Labs assertion mentioned: “Any allegations of wrongdoing contained in latest media enquiries are completely false. Mr Guren (“Bobby”) Zhou has by no means been convicted of any monetary crime in any jurisdiction, and any implication on the contrary is defamatory and false.”

Reuters couldn’t decide whether or not Eric Trump was conscious of these particulars when the 2 met. Parlatore, the World Liberty lawyer, famous that main gross sales of World Liberty tokens are topic to overview, however didn’t reply to questions in regards to the distributors the corporate makes use of or what steps it takes past an preliminary examine of consumers’ identities.

A few month after Zhou met with Eric Trump, in mid-June, Web3Port’s BVI entities modified their names, adopting “Aqua1” rather than “Web3Port,” in line with native authorities information. Simply days later, on June 26, Aqua1 Basis introduced its $100 million buy of World Liberty tokens.

Then, on June 30, the host of a livestream chat on X out of the UAE began speaking in regards to the pleasure surrounding Aqua1. And “guess what,” the host mentioned, there was “a particular visitor from Aqua1 Basis” on the road. That visitor was Zhou, who mentioned, “We’re very proud to be, , a significant participant within the World Liberty, which is Trump’s household’s crypto enterprise.”

(Reporting by David Gauthier-Villars in Dubai, Tom Bergin in London, Michelle Conlin in New York, Lawrence Delevingne in Boston and Tom Wilson in London. Extra reporting by Hadeel Al Sayegh and Federico Maccioni in Dubai and Francesco Guarascio in Hanoi. Edited by Tom Lasseter, Paritosh Bansal and John Blanton.)