In 2025, the Trump family's operations in the cryptocurrency space can be described as 'textbook-level harvesting', mainly leveraging political influence and celebrity effect, launching multiple projects and meme coins, quickly attracting hundreds of billions of dollars (on paper and actual), while retail investors mostly experienced roller coasters, soaring and then plummeting, a classic pump and dump model. Pure fact summary, NFA, just watching the drama～
1. World Liberty Financial (WLFI) project
This is the core DeFi platform of the Trump family, launching at the end of 2024 and expected to explode in 2025.
- Issuing $WLFI governance tokens, two rounds of sales (0.015 USD and 0.05 USD) raised approximately 550-590 million USD, with family entities taking 75% of the profits (around 400 million+).
- Listed on the exchange in September 2025, first day peaked at $0.3-0.4, family paper wealth surged by $5 billion (holding 2.25 billion units).
- At the same time launched the USD1 stablecoin, attracting large investments (e.g., $200 million from Abu Dhabi), family dividends + interest.
- Market crashed at the end of the year, WLFI price halved again, retail investors faced liquidation, but the family had locked in hundreds of billions in profits + value of unsold tokens. Critics called this 'monetizing political influence', with conflict of interest maximized (crypto regulations relaxed after Trump took office).
2. $TRUMP meme coin
- Launched on January 17, 2025 (three days before the inauguration), with Trump personally endorsing it.
- On the first day, it skyrocketed to $75, with a market value of $15 billion, and the family holding 80% (locked for 3 years).
- Rapid crash of 80-90%, retail losses over $2 billion, family earned $300-380 million through sales + fees.
- Classic operation: pump (political hype), insider selling, leaving retail investors to take the fall. Accused of having a high 'rug pull risk', but has locked funds to prevent direct exit.
3. $MELANIA meme coin
- Melania launched on January 19 (the day before the inauguration), closely following her husband's hype.
- First day surged to $13+, market value $2 billion.
- Subsequently crashed by 98.5%, almost to zero. Serious insider trading: 24 wallets hoarded low-priced tokens before the announcement, reselling for nearly $100 million.
- Family/related parties made $100 million+, while retail investors suffered huge losses. Accused of pump-and-dump, platform suspected of manipulation.
4. Other small actions
- The family is also involved in Bitcoin mining (American Bitcoin company), NFTs, etc., with overall crypto wealth surging from zero at the end of 2024 to paper value of billions by the end of the year (peak over $10 billion).
- The market bear (BTC down 30%+) wiped out about $1 billion in paper wealth for the family, but actual profits have exceeded $1 billion.
Overall: The Trump family leveraged the election + inauguration hype to perfectly harvest a wave of 'fan economy + speculative heat'. Project design ensures family profits (high profit sharing + locked funds to mitigate risks), retail investors are left holding the bag, losing billions. Democratic lawmakers and media criticize it as a 'new form of corruption', but no criminal charges (regulatory easing in progress). A classic in the crypto world: political memes never go out of style, but retail investors are always the fodder 😂. At the end of the bear market, everyone is licking their wounds; what do you think about this operation?
