- Donald Trump has denied using his crypto projects to personally profit from the office of president during an interview with NBC’s Meet The Press over the weekend.
- Recent news that the top 220 $TRUMP token holders would be invited to dine privately with the US president on May 22, caused the token’s market cap to surge over US$100 million.
- Democrat senators have written to the US Government Ethics Office requesting an urgent enquiry into the planned dinner, warning of “pay to play” corruption.
Believe it or not, US President Donald Trump said he’s not personally profiting from his $TRUMP memecoin or any of the other Trump family-owned cryptocurrency projects, which include the widely criticised World Liberty Financial (WLFI) DeFi project.
Trump’s claim came during an interview with Kirsten Welker, which aired on US television network NBC’s Meet The Press program on May 4.
When asked to address criticism that he appears to be using crypto to profit from the office of president, Trump made the unlikely claim that he was “not profiting from anything”.
Welker sought further clarification, asking “So you’re not profiting off of the cryptocurrency at all?”
Prompting Trump to respond, “I haven’t even looked.”
Trump’s evasion follows a recent surge in the value of $TRUMP after the announcement that the top 220 holders of the token would be invited to dine privately with the president on May 22. The token’s market cap suddenly surged by over US$100 million (AU$154.8 million).
The plan to allow top token holders private access to the US president has been roundly criticised. Democrat senators Adam Schiff and Elizabeth Warren requested the US Government Ethics Office conduct an “urgent inquiry”, due to a severe risk of corruption.
President Trump and other officials may be engaging in “pay to play” corruption by selling presidential access to individuals or entities, to include foreign nationals and corporate actors with vested interests in federal action, while personally enriching the President and his family.
Letter to US Government Ethics Office from Senators Schiff and Warren
Related: New Filing Reveals: These Crypto Heavyweights Donated to Trump’s 2024 Inauguration
Trump Won’t Be Donating Crypto Profits
$TRUMP launched just days prior to Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2025 and briefly soared in price, reaching US$73.43 (AU$113.73) on January 19. Since then $TRUMP’s price has seen steep declines and at the time of writing sits at just US$11.19 (AU$17.93), according to CoinGecko — a drop of around 85% from its all-time high.
Whether he knows about it or not, Donald Trump and his family are indeed profiting from his cryptocurrency projects. According to crypto analytics firm, Chainalysis, as of March 12 this year $TRUMP had already taken in at least US$350 million (AU$542 million) in transaction fees alone.
But it’s not just transaction fees delivering windfall profits, ownership of $TRUMP is also heavily skewed toward Trump-linked entities — 80% of the total 1 billion tokens are owned by the Trump-affiliated company CIC Digital LLC and by Fight Fight Fight LLC, which is itself owned by CIC Digital.
Most of these tokens are currently locked, but they’ll gradually unlock over the course of the next three years. The first of these planned token unlocks occurred on April 18, seeing 40 million $TRUMP tokens, currently valued at around US$445 million (AU$689 million), flow to CIC Digital. Since this first unlock, smaller, regular unlocks of around 500,000 tokens have been happening several times each week.
During the interview with Welker, Trump was asked if he might donate the profits from his crypto projects back to the government, as he claims to have done with his presidential salary. “I never thought of that,” Trump responded.
I mean, should I contribute all of my real estate that I’ve owned for many years if it goes up a little bit because I’m president and doing a good job? I don’t think so.
US President Donald TrumpRelated: Battle Lines Drawn: China vs. Trump Tariffs While Stagflation Fears Rattle Crypto Markets
Trump also reaffirmed his commitment to crypto during the interview: “I want crypto. I think crypto’s important because if we don’t do it, China’s going to,” adding “It’s new, it’s very popular, it’s very hot.”
Credit: Source link
