World Liberty Financial, the Trump household’s crypto portfolio undertaking, began the yr with excessive hopes. However as the yr attracts to an in depth, the fund has barely seen positive aspects.
US President Donald Trump announced the launch in September 2024 whereas he was nonetheless on the marketing campaign path for the 2024 elections. Led by his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, it marked a big shift in tone for crypto coverage in the US.
This system began sturdy. It launched its personal World Liberty Financial (WLFI) governance token and made giant acquisitions of high-market-cap cryptocurrencies.
The bull market in the summer time/fall of 2025 pumped the Trump household’s share into the billions. However because it started buying and selling publicly, the undertaking’s token is down over 40%.
World Liberty Financial has blended returns
WLFI accomplished its first token sale in October 2024. It sold about 20 billion WLFI tokens at $0.015 per token, elevating about $300 million. This was adopted by one other token sale that ran from January 2025 into March, in which WLFI bought some 5 billion tokens at $0.05 per token. It raised roughly $250 million.
In March, the Trump household issued its personal stablecoin, USD1. By June, that they had penned a take care of PancakeSwap, a decentralized finance protocol owned by Binance, to advertise the asset.
In August, World Liberty entered into a non-public placement and treasury take care of ALT5 Sigma Company. In the $1.5-billion deal, ALT5 traded 100 million shares of its widespread inventory for WLFI tokens, primarily making a crypto treasury.
In the bull run that outlined a lot of the 2025 crypto market, WLFI made a number of giant cryptocurrency acquisitions. It purchased thousands and thousands of {dollars}’ value of a basket of belongings, together with $21.5 million in Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Ether (ETH) and Transfer (MOVE). As of Dec. 22, high cash in the fund additionally embrace substantial holdings of USD1, a number of Aave-tied belongings, in addition to Mantle (MNT).
Public monitoring knowledge of the Trumps’ portfolio worth solely began in September 2025, when it was value over $17 billion at the peak of the yr’s bull market. As of Dec. 11, the belongings in the fund are value just below $8 billion, marking a 47% lower.
Trump’s fund mired in controversy
Traditionally, US presidents have distanced themselves from any enterprise ventures that may very well be seen as a battle of curiosity with their duties as the chief government. Former President Jimmy Carter famously positioned his peanut farm in a semi-blind belief whereas he held workplace.
Trump has taken the actual reverse method, changing into actively concerned in enterprise ventures that may instantly profit from his personal monetary and political priorities. In September, as Bitcoin’s (BTC) worth started to creep in direction of an annual excessive, the BBC reported that the Trump household’s share of World Liberty Financial was value over $5 billion. This was realized largely via its contractual possession of most of the WLFI tokens.
The Trump administration has confronted repeated requires inquiries over what opponents say are conflicts of curiosity. As early as April 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Consultant Maxine Waters sent a letter to the US Securities and Trade Fee’s (SEC) then-acting chair, Mark Uyeda. In it, they requested the SEC to “protect all data and communications concerning World Liberty Financial, Inc., the cryptocurrency firm owned by President Trump’s household.” The fee was referred to as upon to determine the extent Trump’s involvement might compromise its capacity to manage successfully.
In November, Warren repeated her name for a probe, following a report from Accountable.US, which claimed that World Liberty Financial bought tokens to sanctioned people with ties to Iran, North Korea and Russia.
Associated: Trump’s USD1 stablecoin deepens concerns over conflicts of interest
White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated the allegations had been baseless. She blamed the media writ giant for “continued makes an attempt to manufacture conflicts of curiosity,” as they’re “irresponsible and reinforce the public’s mistrust in what they learn.”
“Neither the president nor his household have ever engaged or will ever have interaction in conflicts of curiosity. The administration is fulfilling the president’s promise to make the United States the crypto capital of the world by driving innovation and financial alternative for all People,” she stated.
World Liberty itself said that it ran Anti-Cash Laundering and Know Your Buyer checks on potential consumers “and turned down thousands and thousands of {dollars} from potential purchasers who failed the exams.”
The Trump household’s crypto ventures should not restricted to World Liberty Financial. Trump Media and Expertise Group Corp additionally operates the fintech model Fact.Fi. In September, it purchased 684.4 million Cronos (CRO) tokens at roughly $0.153 per token, totalling $104.7 million. This was a part of a 50% inventory, 50% money alternate with crypto alternate platform Crypto.com.
Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. additionally based and backed the crypto mining enterprise American Bitcoin. As of Dec. 10, the firm’s complete Bitcoin holdings amounted to 4,784 BTC, in keeping with Stable Intel.
The general worth of World Liberty Financial’s portfolio has dropped considerably. Regardless of this marked lower in worth, World Liberty Financial is steaming forward with new belongings and offers. On Dec. 3, its co-founder Zach Witkoff announced that it’s going to launch a set of real-world belongings (RWAs) beginning in January 2026.
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Cointelegraph by Aaron Wooden Trump’s World Liberty Financial Ends 2025 in the Red cointelegraph.com 2025-12-22 14:20:42
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