One year into Trump's presidency, the family is wildly printing "cryptocurrency banknotes"

Author: Dingdang, Odaily Planet Daily

On January 20, Trump Media & Technology Group (NASDAQ: DJT) announced that the record date for its previously announced digital token plan is set for February 2, 2026. On this record date, ultimate beneficial owners and registered shareholders holding at least one full DJT share will be eligible to receive future digital tokens and related incentives. After the record date, Trump Media will collaborate with Crypto.com to handle the minting and distribution of the tokens, with specific implementation mechanisms still to be disclosed.

From a formal perspective, this appears more like an intersection experiment between crypto and traditional finance: although it is an airdrop, the holders are not crypto players but U.S. stock investors. However, as soon as “Trump family + issuing tokens” are involved, market nerves are hard not to be touched.

After all, Trump’s “grasp” of the crypto community’s chives has always been steady, and the last time TRUMP issued tokens is still vivid. It created wealth for many, but was also accused of draining market liquidity afterward, as the market experienced a sharp correction. This time, DJT’s shareholder token plan is a new twist on the Trump family’s financialization and securitization efforts, but there’s an inexplicable sense of being harvested—what’s going on?

After Trump began his second term as President, his public stance also clearly shifted toward being friendly to the crypto industry: on one hand promoting regulatory framework development, and on the other hand, his family’s enterprises are accelerating their expansion in the crypto sector. Over the past year, crypto assets have become an indispensable part of Trump family’s wealth structure, systematically building a crypto industry network spanning DeFi, stablecoins, computing power, and listed company financial products.

Recent reports indicate that crypto-related projects have increased the Trump family’s assets by about $1.4 billion within a year. With total net assets of approximately $6.8 billion, crypto assets have for the first time accounted for nearly 20%.

Based on this, Odaily Planet Daily attempts to systematically review the main crypto layouts currently traceable of the Trump family.

1. World Liberty Financial: Core DeFi Hub

This is the core crypto project in the Trump family’s industry layout. The project aims to be a decentralized finance protocol and governance platform, attempting to bridge traditional finance (TradFi) and DeFi through blockchain technology, providing users with lending, governance participation, and yield opportunities, while emphasizing the role of USD stablecoins in the global digital financial system.

The project was initiated in 2024 by Trump himself, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, along with partner real estate developer Steve Witkoff, among others.

World Liberty Financial’s governance token is WLFI, with a total supply of 10 billion tokens, and a current market cap of about $4.7 billion. The token sales began in October 2024, raising approximately $550 million. According to circulating profit-sharing structures, about 75% of the net proceeds from sales go to Trump family entities, which alone could bring in about $400 million in cash returns.

In terms of token distribution, the family-affiliated company DT Marks DeFi LLC holds about 2.25 billion WLFI, accounting for 22.5% of the total. At the current price of approximately $0.17, its book value is about $380 million.

More noteworthy is its stablecoin USD1.

USD1 is supported by a 100% reserve mechanism mainly composed of short-term U.S. Treasury bonds, cash deposits, and money market funds. Defillama data shows that USD1’s current market cap is about $3.2 billion, ranking seventh among stablecoins. For a stablecoin issued only in April 2025, its growth rate is astonishing.

The key driver is Binance’s deep integration and traffic support. On the BSC chain, USD1’s supply is about $1.83 billion, accounting for 57.8% of its total issuance.

Assuming a reserve scale of about $3 billion and a short-term U.S. debt yield of 3.5%–4.5% in 2026, the interest income from reserves alone could reach $105 million to $135 million annually. Under the current model, this cash flow mainly belongs to the issuer.

From a financial structure perspective, USD1 is not just a stablecoin but a financial instrument capable of continuously generating U.S. dollar cash flow. For the Trump family, it is a long-running “interest machine.”

2. American Bitcoin Corp.: Dual-Driven by Computing Power and Reserves

American Bitcoin Corp (NASDAQ: ABTC) is a Bitcoin mining and strategic reserve company, controlled by Hut 8 Corp, one of North America’s largest listed mining companies, in cooperation with the Trump family. Hut 8 holds about 80% of the shares, while early shareholders of American Data Centers, including Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and others, hold the remaining 20%, with Eric Trump personally holding about 7.4%-7.5%.

The company is not just an investment entity but operates several large-scale mining farms in Texas and other locations. In November 2025, Eric Trump showcased a Texas-based mining farm with about 35,000 mining machines, claiming this was only part of its total computing power, which implies that American Bitcoin Corp’s equipment might be far beyond 35,000 machines. It claims to produce about 2% of the global daily new Bitcoin, which, from context, suggests a daily output of about 9 BTC (with global daily new production around 450 BTC), and an annual output of approximately 3,285 BTC.

According to American Bitcoin’s Q3 2025 financial report, revenue was about $64.2 million, with a net profit of about $3.5 million, reversing a loss of $576,000 in the same period last year. The Q3 mining output was 563 BTC. Based on this, the average Bitcoin price during that period was about $114,000, but if it fluctuates around $89,000, profitability would be compressed, even leading to losses.

Data from bitcointreasuries.net shows that American Bitcoin Corp’s accumulated Bitcoin reserves through mining and market purchases total 5,427 BTC, worth about $486 million, ranking among the top twenty listed companies by Bitcoin reserves.

However, since the company does not fully pay cash for new miners but adopts a “BTC collateral + installment/guarantee” structure, using part of its own Bitcoin as collateral to exchange for equipment from manufacturers and delay payments. The collateral BTC disclosed in Q3 is about 2,385 BTC, not yet deducted from total reserves.

Many mining companies adopt this approach, using BTC as “high-value collateral” to exchange for physical equipment. Therefore, for mining companies, this cycle of “mining output → collateral financing for new miners → increased computing power → more mining output” can amplify capital returns during a bullish Bitcoin trend; but in a bear market, it can also magnify operational leverage.

3. TRUMP and MELANIA Tokens: Political IP Traffic Monetization

Compared to the above infrastructure-based layouts, TRUMP and MELANIA are direct monetizations leveraging Trump family’s brand influence and market hype.

TRUMP is launched by Trump-related companies CIC Digital LLC and Fight Fight Fight LLC. The total supply is 1 billion tokens, with an initial circulation of 200 million, and the remaining 800 million expected to be linearly unlocked over 3 years. However, the two related entities hold 80% of TRUMP tokens, with a lock-up period of 3–12 months, then gradually released over 24 months.

According to tokenomist data, TRUMP’s current circulating supply is 480 million, with 200 million used for airdrops and liquidity support, directly unlocked at initial circulation, and the remaining 280 million owned by Trump-related companies. At the current price of $4.86, the paper gains are about $1.36 billion, even though TRUMP’s price has fallen over 90% from its peak of $77.

MELANIA is managed by MKT World LLC, a Florida-registered company under First Lady Melania Trump. The total amount is also 1 billion, with about 600 million already unlocked, including 350 million for the team, valued at approximately $57.8 million at current prices.

However, Melania’s team was once accused of high-level cash-out and investor fraud. In June 2025, on-chain data showed that the team-related addresses sold 82.18 million MELANIA over four months through 44 wallets, mainly by adding and removing liquidity, cashing out 245,000 SOL, worth about $35.76 million at that time. It’s conceivable that their actual profits could be far beyond current data.

4. Trump Digital Trading Cards Series NFT

NFTs are Trump’s entry point into the crypto world.

In December 2022, Trump announced the release of Trump Digital Trading Card NFTs via his social media platform Truth Social. The series was minted on the Polygon blockchain, initially creating a total of 45,000 NFTs, each priced at $99. Buying 45 digital trading cards would grant a ticket to dine with Trump. Despite being mocked at the time, the series sold out in less than two days, netting $4.45 million in profit.

After the initial success, Trump continued to release Series 2 and Series 3, with each card still priced at $99, but Series 2 had 47,000 cards, and Series 3 reached 100,000. Although the quantities were large, under Trump’s playful tactics, they still sold out, generating a total of about $14.55 million in revenue from these two sales.

In August 2024, Trump launched Series 4, again priced at $99 per card, but with an astonishing total of 360,000 cards. This time, the market couldn’t keep up. Opensea data shows about 32,000 cards sold, with profits of approximately $3.18 million.

Overall, this series of NFTs still brought Trump more than $20 million in direct income, not including the 10% royalty on secondary market resales.

5. Trump Media’s Financial Product Ambitions

Since 2025, Trump Media Group has launched the “America First” series ETFs and crypto treasury layouts via Truth.Fi. These ETFs officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on December 30, 2025, jointly launched by TMTG and Yorkville America Equities (a branch of Yorkville Advisors). The first batch includes five equity-themed funds focusing on “Made in America” concepts, covering defense, security, technology, energy, and real estate, with only one related to Bitcoin.

However, TMTG has filed multiple pure crypto ETFs (such as Truth Social Bitcoin ETF, Bitcoin & Ethereum ETF, Crypto Blue Chip ETF), which plan to hold assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cronos (CRO), etc. (for example, Crypto Blue Chip ETF initially allocates 70% BTC, 15% ETH). But these crypto ETFs are still in SEC filing/approval stages and have not yet been approved for listing or trading.

Nevertheless, Trump Media Group itself holds about 11,500 BTC, valued at approximately $1.03 billion, ranking 12th among listed companies’ Bitcoin reserves, with no sale records so far.