It has been a whirlwind week for the Trump family and the world of cryptocurrency, as two major Trump-linked digital asset ventures made their public debuts, sending shockwaves through both financial markets and the political landscape. On Wednesday, September 3, 2025, American Bitcoin Corp. (ABTC), a bitcoin treasury and mining company backed by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., began trading on the Nasdaq exchange. Just days prior, on Labor Day, World Liberty Financial—a cryptocurrency project founded by the Trump sons and 19-year-old Barron Trump—saw its token, WLFI, enter public trading, instantly adding billions to the Trump family’s already considerable fortune.
The timing and scale of these launches have not gone unnoticed. According to The Wall Street Journal, the debut of World Liberty Financial’s WLFI token was likely the biggest financial windfall for the Trump family since Donald Trump’s initial inauguration, with the family’s stake valued at up to $5 or $6 billion at the token’s peak price. The listing of American Bitcoin on the Nasdaq, meanwhile, marks what Eric Trump described as “a historic milestone in bringing bitcoin into the core of U.S. capital markets and advancing our mission to make America the undisputed leader of the global Bitcoin economy.”
American Bitcoin’s journey to the Nasdaq was paved by a stock-for-stock merger with Gryphon Digital Mining, Inc. The new entity is majority owned by Hut 8 Corp., which contributed the bulk of its Bitcoin mining ASICs in exchange for an 80% stake. This partnership grants American Bitcoin access to scaled colocation infrastructure, enabling the firm to mine bitcoin efficiently without major capital outlays for proprietary data centers. Asher Genoot, Executive Chairman of American Bitcoin and CEO of Hut 8, stated, “With the backing of the public markets, we believe American Bitcoin is now positioned to set the standard in Bitcoin accumulation.”
The company’s business model is built on a dual accumulation strategy, integrating self-mining operations with opportunistic bitcoin purchases. This approach, as explained by Eric Trump, provides flexibility to respond to market conditions while maintaining a cost advantage over pure accumulation vehicles. The result? Investors now have a new, Trump-linked vehicle for exposure to what Eric Trump called “the defining asset class of our time.”
Donald Trump Jr., a stockholder in American Bitcoin, underscored the venture’s alignment with what he sees as core American values. “American Bitcoin embodies the values that define American strength: freedom, transparency, and independence. With our Nasdaq listing, we are elevating this mission onto the global stage, giving investors a vehicle we believe will strengthen the U.S. financial system and help build a more resilient national economy,” he said, according to Reuters.
The Trumps’ rapid pivot from real estate to crypto has been nothing short of dramatic. Over the past year, the family has launched or backed a string of high-profile crypto projects, including the USD1 stablecoin and the $TRUMP meme coin—whose estimated market value, according to research firm Messari, is $1.7 billion. Trump Media, which owns the Truth Social platform, has also purchased $2 billion worth of bitcoin and reserved another $300 million in bitcoin options, as reported by Common Dreams. The family’s crypto holdings are now estimated to be worth several billion dollars on paper, with crypto assets comprising as much as 73% of President Trump’s net worth, according to an investigation by Accountable.US.
World Liberty Financial’s WLFI token has been at the center of this new crypto empire. The company, which aims to provide financial services without intermediaries like banks, lists President Trump and Steve Witkoff, his diplomatic envoy, as co-founders emeritus, with the Trump sons and Witkoff’s sons as founders. The tokens were first sold to investors in October 2024 and became tradable after a July 2025 vote. On its first day of trading, WLFI fluctuated between 20 and 30 cents on Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange. At its peak, The Wall Street Journal estimated the Trump family’s stake was worth more than $5 billion.
But the Trumps’ crypto success has not come without controversy. Democrats and progressive groups have been quick to criticize what they call the “monetization” of the presidency and the family’s efforts to profit from their political influence. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) bluntly stated, “Your family gets higher energy prices and cuts to healthcare. [Trump’s] family gets billions. Corruption, plain and simple.” Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) described the $5 billion windfall as “blatantly corrupt and a brazen abuse of power.”
Much of the criticism has centered on the GENIUS Act, a landmark crypto regulation bill signed by President Trump in July 2025. The legislation, which passed with support from over 100 Democrats, established the first U.S. regulatory framework for crypto and designated stablecoins as commodities rather than securities—a move that critics say allows for much looser oversight. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) warned that the bill “legitimizes Trump actively building the most corrupt self-dealing crypto environment this country has ever seen.”
Despite the backlash, Trump has embraced his new role as what he calls America’s “first crypto president.” On the campaign trail, he promised to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet” and has repeatedly touted his administration’s pro-crypto policies as a sharp contrast to those of his predecessor, Joe Biden. In May, Trump even hosted a dinner at his Virginia golf club for 220 investors in the $TRUMP meme coin, with the top 25 holders receiving a private VIP reception.
The explosion of Trump-linked crypto ventures has also highlighted broader trends in the digital asset space. Corporate adoption of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has accelerated, with major firms like Strategy Inc. announcing large bitcoin purchases for their treasuries. Crypto ownership remains highly concentrated among the wealthiest Americans; a Harris poll found nearly half of all U.S. crypto owners earn over $150,000 a year. Meanwhile, crypto-backed political action committees spent more than $133 million during the 2024 election cycle, supporting both Republicans and Democrats and helping to usher in what Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong called “America’s most pro-crypto Congress ever.”
Yet, even as crypto gains mainstream traction, the scale of the Trump family’s digital fortune is unprecedented. According to Common Dreams, Trump’s crypto holdings far exceed those of every member of Congress combined. “We have only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the damage that this corruption will inflict on the American people,” warned Bartlett Naylor of Public Citizen, reflecting the deep unease among critics who see Trump’s crypto empire as a threat to transparency and public trust.
As the dust settles on this historic week, one thing is clear: the Trump family has firmly entrenched itself at the center of America’s crypto revolution, blurring the lines between business, politics, and technology in ways that will reverberate for years to come.
