Trump inflates wealth with $930 million move
While Trump's overall net worth has remained relatively stable — $6.5 billion ($A9.75b) on Election Day and $6.4 billion ($A9.6b) now — Bloomberg's analysis shows that digital assets and crypto-linked ventures have rapidly become the most lucrative part of his portfolio.
Much of that comes from World Liberty Financial, a blockchain platform that issues its own token and a stablecoin called USD1.
Bloomberg estimates that $390 million ($A585m) of the $550 million ($A825m) in token sales has gone to the Trump family, who also hold 22.5 billion World Liberty-branded tokens.
Although those tokens are excluded from Trump's net worth calculation due to current transfer restrictions, their market value in June exceeded $2 billion ($A3b).
The family recently reduced its stake in World Liberty from 60 per cent to 40 per cent.
The crypto haul 'dwarfs the more than $34 million the Trump Organization reported taking in from real estate licensing deals last year,' Bloomberg reported.
'I am incredibly proud of our wonderful company. We have never been stronger,' Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, told the outlet.
One of the highest-profile events linked to Trump's digital asset push was the creation of a memecoin under the president's name that was launched during his inauguration weekend.
The Trump Organization and affiliate CIC Digital collectively hold 80 per cent of the token supply. Trump's stake in the memecoin — after liquidity discounts and trading revenue — is worth around $150 million, ($A225m) Bloomberg reported.
An additional 800 million coins, worth over $7 billion ($A10.5b) are set to vest over three years beginning this month, but are not included in Bloomberg's wealth estimate.
Meanwhile, the Trump family's largest real estate windfall in years came in January, when Trump National Doral won approval to build 1,500 luxury condos.
That pushed the valuation of the 600-acre Miami-area golf resort from $350 million ($A525m) to $1.5 billion ($A2.25b), Bloomberg calculated.
Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., the parent of Truth Social, has also significantly impacted Trump's balance sheet.
The company, which reported a $401 million net loss ($A601.5m) in 2023, briefly added $4 billion ($A6b) to Trump's net worth in October.
Today, Bloomberg values his stake at $2 billion ($A3b).
The company is now pivoting to finance and Bitcoin.
The Trump family's crypto-related business continues to expand.
American Bitcoin — a spin-off from a Trump-aligned investment bank — plans to go public in a merger with Gryphon Digital Mining Inc., a Nasdaq-listed penny stock.
Hut 8 Corp., a Bitcoin miner, transferred most of its mining equipment to American Bitcoin in exchange for a majority stake. The Trumps and their partners own 20 per cent of the business, which Bloomberg says is now valued at over $3 billion ($A4.5b), despite its main asset having a book value of just $120 million ($A180m).
The stablecoin USD1, issued by World Liberty, received a boost when Abu Dhabi-based MGX said it used the token to make a $2 billion ($A3b) investment in crypto exchange Binance.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao — who pled guilty to US anti-money laundering violations and is reportedly seeking a pardon — is listed as an adviser to World Liberty, along with Sun and Bilal Bin Saqib, who chairs Pakistan's Crypto Council.
Applying Circle Internet Group's market cap-to-circulation ratio for USDC implies World Liberty could be worth $1.4 billion ($A2.1b), Bloomberg said, although the stablecoin was excluded from Trump's net worth due to limited adoption.
Another sign of the Trumps' deepening crypto ties is Eric Trump's recent announcement that World Liberty Financial will acquire a 'substantial position' in the Trump memecoin for its digital asset reserves.
Yet not all of the family's ventures are fully visible. Bloomberg noted that several private efforts — including the members-only club Executive Branch in Washington, DC, and links to companies such as Metaplanet, Kalsh and BlinkRX — were not included in Trump's net worth due to opaque financial disclosures.
Trump's crypto gains are also reflected in official financial filings.
His June 2025 disclosure lists more than $600 million ($A900m) in income from crypto-related activity and merchandise sales through the end of 2024.
The figures include $57.35 million ($A86.03m) from token sales at World Liberty Financial; $320 million ($A480m) in fees generated by the Trump memecoin (though it's unclear how much went directly to Trump-controlled entities); over $400 million ($A600m) in decentralised finance activity involving World Liberty Financial and affiliated projects; and $1.16 million ($A1.74) from NFT and digital card sales.
Forbes last month estimated that Trump's total crypto-related gains could reach up to $1 billion ($A1.5b), accounting for all token sales, fees, and future distributions. That figure includes both realised and unrealised gains and assumes Trump retains a large portion of proceeds from his various ventures.
The Post has sought comment from the White House and the Trump Organization.
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Belinda Smith: Hi, this is The Science Show, and I'm Belinda Smith, keeping Robyn Williams' seat toasty and warm for the next few weeks. Few activities are as satisfying as making something, whether that's baking the perfect pavlova or knocking up a nesting box. But how would you even begin to create, I don't know, a brand new flavor or bring back to life an extinct species of frog? Those stories are coming up but first is the US experiencing a brain drain? News Grab: Good morning. It's now 5.35 here in the east. We are allowing all of our stations across the country to join us. Now with the breaking news, we are projecting at this hour the 47th president of the United States. Uh, Donald Trump will be, uh, elected to return to the White House. Belinda Smith: Since President Donald Trump retook office, the state of scientific research in the States has been well precarious, to say the least. 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As you say, a real frenzy of government funding freezes, cuts, executive orders, all of which have had a major impact on scientific and medical research on national science and health agencies in the us um, but also science and health funding in, in many parts of the world that are reliant on US funding and that includes, uh, researchers in Australia. We know that so far. Well over a thousand research grants have been terminated at government agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and NASA. Together, those total, several billions of dollars, and there's many more grants that have also been flagged for review. And then on top of that, hundreds of staff have been cut from some of these federal agencies that I mentioned, as well as. 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So we know that many of the cancel grants or grants under review focus on marginalized and underrepresented groups, uh, racial and ethnic minorities. So groups that have, have been largely understudied historically, and the Trump administration perhaps doesn't see this type of research as benefiting broadly the health of all Americans. Belinda Smith: What other areas of faced cuts? Olivia Willis: There's also research areas that have lost funding simply because they're not priorities of the Trump administration or, or I guess the government doesn't see them as fitting in with their own scientific agenda. So things like research into vaccine misinformation, uh, hiv aids, climate science, clean energy. I should note that this is a really fast moving situation and things will probably change. So we know that a number of lawsuits have been launched against the government regarding these funding freezes and cuts. Some of them have been successful. Just a couple of weeks ago, a federal judge ruled that the cancellation of more than $1 billion in research grants at the National Institutes of Health. That they were illegal in order for them to be reinstated. It looks like the government will file an appeal on that judgment, but in the meantime, staff at at certain agencies have been instructed not to cancel any further grants. So it's definitely a fast moving, unfolding dynamic situation. I. Belinda Smith: And may get dragged through the courts for months and months to come. Olivia Willis: I think so. Belinda Smith: Mm. What have these cuts done to researchers? Olivia Willis: Well, I think it's probably important to think about the context of how significant the US is as a player in research funding globally. So. It's, it's one of the biggest funders in the world of research and development. The National Institutes of Health alone is the biggest funder of medical research globally. A huge number of researchers around the world would benefit off funding from that agency. Um, and in 2023, it was estimated that the US actually provided 30% of all global r and d funding. So you can. Get a sense there from just how much they contribute to what those cuts would mean in terms of specific research fields. There's, you know, we're seeing areas of research, I guess, that have been threatened because huge chunks of their funding have been wiped out. And then for the researchers. The people who work at these federal agencies, a lot of people have lost their jobs, um, or their funding. That of course includes principal investigators and professors, but also early career researchers, PhD students, people who rely on scholarships. And I think the other thing is that for many scientists, it appears to have really created, I guess, a climate of, of fear and worry about their jobs and the viability of their research long term. Belinda Smith: You are listening to Belinda Smith on the Science Show, and I'm talking to health reporter Olivia Willis, about the state of research funding in the United States. Now, I've seen reports of countries that are seeing this as an opportunity for them to really beef up their local scientific expertise and try and get that US talent to relocate to their countries and establish their research programs There. What's been going on in that space and what's Australia's done? Olivia Willis: Yeah, we are, so there's several European universities that have set up initiatives. Um, countries like France and Canada are actively recruiting. The European Commission recently announced 500 million euros to make Europe a magnet for researchers in the next two years. So I suspect that's going to be a popular location for some US scientists when it comes to Australia. There are a number of research institutes. That I know have received really significant interest from US researchers since these cuts have happened. And recruiting scientists is something that the Australian Academy of Science is actively working on. So in April, they set up a program to nationally coordinate this recruitment effort. It's called the Global Talent Attraction Program, and I recently spoke to the academy's chief executive, Anna Maria Arabia, about this. Anna-Maria Arabia: We know that talent is everywhere. Uh, but opportunity is not everywhere. And, uh, this is a, an initiative to attract to Australia leading talent that we know, uh, builds capability in Australia that builds our, uh, scientific talent pool. Um, that enables scientific advancements and industries, um, to be seeded and to grow. Um, importantly, talent like this train and mentor, the next generation of young Australian scientists, uh, we know it creates jobs. Um, and, and we know science and technology is part of a really, um, rapid, uh, global race at the moment. Belinda Smith: So the Australian Academy of Sciences calls this a global talent attraction program, but it sounds quite targeted to the us Olivia Willis: Yeah, that's right. So at least initially it is specifically for US scientists, um, and also Australian scientists in the US who are wanting to return home. As I mentioned, in April, they launched the program and that was about essentially getting funders for it and people to kind of support this research. But it was actually just this week that they've announced that applications for the program are now open. Belinda Smith: So it's early days yet really in terms of getting people involved in the program that might be interested in coming to Australia. Do you know if the Australian Academy of Sciences has any priorities in terms of the, the types of research that they're particularly interested in attracting? Olivia Willis: So the program itself, they've described as discipline agnostic, meaning I think that it, it's not limited to any specific areas of research. That being said, when I spoke to Anna Maria Arabia about it, she told me that one of the reasons they wanted to launch it was so they could assess applications against Australia's. What they call capability gaps. So she talked about areas like data science, statistics, mathematics, um, all being areas that as a kind of research landscape we need to bolster and also touched on issues about the fact that our population is aging, that we need to decarbonize. So it sounds like there will be. Some kind of strategic considerations that are made when they're looking at the types of, um, the, the areas of research that they want to bring more expertise in. Anna-Maria Arabia: We are also looking at areas where there is just outstanding talent that we know if they were to come to Australia, there is no doubt that the multiplier effect and the impact of their contribution, uh, would be many times, uh, what it costs to bring them here. It is the story of Australia. Uh, so many of our leading scientists today were born overseas. We look at our own fellowship, who Australia's most distinguished scientists, and we did account since 2017. Um, the fellows elected to the academy. 42% of them were born overseas. It is the Australian story. Uh, our research effort is relatively young and since World War II and so many of our stellar scientists, you only need to think of Professor Michelle Simmons or Lydia Roka or Brian Schmidt, all born abroad, all bought their capability here as young scientists who, who seeded, uh, talent here, who nurtured the next generation and have now built Um, research sectors and industries we could have only dreamed of. Olivia Willis: So what does this program involve? So once the academy has identified scientists that they're interested in bringing to Australia, they'll work with universities and research institutes to look at. Basically where they can place them so the universities and the research organizations will host them. And my understanding is the Academy's talent attraction program will provide the research funding and the relocation support. Belinda Smith: Mm-hmm. And what about like local researchers? You know, it, it's, it's a, it's a tough old grind being scientists having to apply for grants and. Olivia Willis: Is there any support for local people? It is a great question and it's something I put to her as well. You know, as you say, research funding is extremely competitive in Australia. A lot of researchers miss out, and so I asked whether that was a concern, you know, pouring funding into US scientists or international researchers when many of our own researchers are struggling to get grants. Anna-Maria Arabia: I think we should do everything we can in Australia to nurture young talent, but I feel that these are related, but separate strategies. Uh, so to those young researchers, I would say, uh, through this program we are attracting to Australia, uh, individuals who will inspire you, who will mentor and train you. Um, and provide opportunities that don't exist today. They are not taking away money that would otherwise go to support early career researchers. In fact, they create opportunities for them. Belinda Smith: That was Anna Maria Arabia, CEO of the Australian Academy of Science and ABC Health reporter Olivia Willis, filling us in on the US research funding situation. And now a story of scientific endeavor from our shores. 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