The greatest salesman in U.S. history delivers the keynote speech at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville.
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Looking at Donald Trump’s finances, it’s easy to miss one of his most important assets: bitcoin. The cryptocurrency appears nowhere on the financial disclosure the president files with the government. It is not listed among the holdings identified on the Trump Organization’s website. And it does not show up in other reports of his assets. But make no mistake, Trump holds a major position in the digital currency, amounting to an estimated $870 million, enough to make him one of the largest bitcoin investors on the planet.
The reason Trump’s investment is so hidden: He holds it indirectly, through his stake in the business that operates Truth Social, the Trump Media and Technology Group (which does appear on his balance sheet). Trump Media attracted a multibillion-dollar valuation trading on the Nasdaq despite generating less than $4 million of annual revenue, then pivoted to crypto earlier this year. In May, it raised $2.3 billion by taking on a pile of debt and selling its overvalued stock. Then, in July, it snatched $2 billion of bitcoin. The stock sales diluted Trump’s stake in the company from 52% to 41%. The price of bitcoin has increased about 6% since Trump Media’s big bet. That leaves the president with 41% of an estimated $2.1 billion stockpile, enough to make his personal share roughly $870 million.
There are only a handful of other billionaires who appear to own more. The Winklevoss twins could have over $8 billion, if they haven’t sold off any in recent years. Michael Saylor, who pioneered the bitcoin treasury strategy Trump Media is now copying, has about $5 billion through his 7% stake in his company, Strategy—as well as an estimated $2.2 billion on the side. Tim Draper won an auction in 2014 for coins the U.S. government seized when taking down the Silk Road, an illicit marketplace, that are now worth $3.6 billion. Investor Matthew Roszak may hold more than $1 billion. Right behind them: Donald Trump, who wanted little to do with bitcoin during his first term.
“I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air,” the president tweeted in 2019. “Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity.”
Trump’s transformation from crypto skeptic to bitcoin bull captures his approach to business. An opportunist with a mind for marketing, he started to dabble in crypto during his years out of the White House. First, Trump sold nonfungible-token trading cards, including ones of himself stylized as a superhero, generating a few million dollars of easy money. Then, as the 2024 election drew closer, he launched a crypto project with his three sons named World Liberty Financial. It pretty much went nowhere, until Trump won the election. That’s when crypto community, highly vulnerable to government regulation, piled into World Liberty tokens, ultimately adding more than $1 billion to Trump’s net worth, according to Forbes estimates. With D.C. buzzing before the inauguration, the president-elect also launched a memecoin, boosting his fortune by nearly a billion more.
The dawn of a second Trump presidency lifted asset values across the industry. The price of bitcoin jumped 60% from Election Day in November to May of this year. Trump Media announced its plan to start stockpiling bitcoin. It relied on its sky-high trading price to raise money, selling $1 billion of convertible bonds and another $1.4 billion of stock. Trump’s share of the debt—equal to about $400 million—now represents the largest loan in his portfolio, bigger than any of his real estate mortgages.
The White House is unbothered by the ethical concerns all of this creates. “Neither the president nor his family have ever engaged, or ever will ever engage, in conflicts of interest,” says Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, immediately undermining herself by pointing to clear conflicts of interest. “Through executive actions, supporting legislation like the GENIUS Act and other common-sense policies, the administration is fulfilling the president’s promise to make the United States the crypto capital of the world.”
Investors who bought the shares and bonds that funded Trump Media’s bitcoin bet were apparently hoping for a meme-stock surge, which seemed plausible. After all, shares of Trump Media had soared on little more than a money-losing social media app, so maybe they would rocket again when tethered to one of the buzziest assets in the world? Adding a level of security, the bonds are structured to allow investors to walk away with a 4% return after a year and half if a stock surge did not materialize.
But mania tends to taper off eventually. Despite having a stronger balance sheet, which now features a couple billion dollars of bitcoin and a billion in debt, the market cap of Trump Media is $1.2 billion less today than it was before the company shifted to bitcoin. Set the bitcoin play aside, and investors are now implying the original media business is worth just 60% of what they thought it amounted to in May.
That’s not to say Trump Media is doomed, especially with three more years left in Trump’s second term. If bitcoin prices continue to climb, perhaps aided by the ally in the White House, the president’s most faithful followers may start bidding up shares again, potentially adding hundreds of millions, or even billions, to Trump’s fortune.