Trump’s crypto assets are nonsense. The money they throw away is real

DDonald Trump posted a digital meme on Friday, sparking a trading frenzy that led to reports he instantly added tens of billions of dollars to his fortune. Absurdity. These numbers are based on the theoretical prices of crypto assets that Trump cannot sell at the moment, which is why Forbes values ​​them at zero, consistent with our methodology of generally excluding unsaleable assets from the net worth count. However, the crypto that Trump has already offloaded has bolstered his fortune, adding hundreds of millions of dollars in liquid assets to his balance sheet.

How did this happen? Take the example of World Liberty Financial, a crypto company that over the past few days has increased the new president’s treasury by approximately $290 million. World Liberty Financial generates revenue by selling tokens. Its “gold paper” – a Trumpified version of a white paper – explains that these tokens cannot currently be resold and promise no share of future profits, offering little to people who like to make money on their investments . The document states that the first $30 million in revenue remains in the project, which aims to accelerate finance and bring crypto to the mainstream. However, after setting aside that initial amount of money, 75% apparently goes to Trump’s company, and 25% is split among other insiders, including the family of Steve Witkoff, Trump’s new special envoy in the Middle East.

Trump unveiled World Liberty Financial in August, but sales got off to a sluggish start. As of November 2, customers had only purchased tokens worth an estimated $15 million, not enough to fully fund the project, much less give Trump a share of the revenue. But weeks after the November 5 election, a crypto entrepreneur named Justin Sun, who has been fighting the Securities and Exchange Commission over accusations of unregistered crypto sales and fraudulent market manipulation, announced that he had invested $30 million in the project, guaranteeing that Trump would walk away with money. Sales poured in over the following weeks, reaching an estimated $94 million this Saturday, implying $48 million in revenue for Trump’s entity.

Then things got wild. At 9:18 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, World Liberty Financial announced that it had dumped all of the coins it had originally planned to sell last year, reportedly raising $300 million. An estimated $206 million in sales were made in a 29-hour period leading up to the inauguration. Trump will have reduced by then: around $200 million, according to Forbes” calculations. He didn’t stop there. World Liberty Financial then revealed a new offering of tokens for sale, raising the price of each from one and a half cents to five cents. As of Tuesday evening, the project had grossed about Another $117 million, including about $88 million going to Trump’s business, bringing his total to about $290 million, coming from just one of his crypto businesses.

In addition to World Liberty Financial, the president is selling a digital meme called $TRUMP, which he announced Friday, just in time to benefit from some inaugural buzz. The $TRUMP meme doesn’t even pretend to have a financial goal: its official website tells buyers to “celebrate our victory and have fun!” » while warning them that they are not purchasing an investment opportunity. The salary structure underpinning $TRUMP is murky, but potentially even more lucrative for the president than World Liberty Financial. Through a company called CIC Digital LLC, Trump partnered with another company called Fight Fight Fight LLC and posted 200 million memes, priced as of Wednesday morning at about $43 each. Buyers appear to receive a sort of digital card.

There are still many unknowns, including the average price at which the president and his team sold their $TRUMP batch, as well as the ownership split between his company and Fight Fight Fight LLC, making it impossible to calculate exactly how much Trump owns. taken from manna. Representatives for Trump’s real estate and crypto businesses did not respond to requests for comment. The billionaire announced the sale at 9 p.m. on Friday, and according to CoinMarketCap, $TRUMP was trading at around $7 at 11 p.m., before peaking above $70 on Sunday. If the president’s company owned even 50% of the company and sold the 200 million tokens for an average of $7, he could have scored a windfall of $700 million, on top of the $290 million estimated by World Liberty Financial. (All this before deducting any taxes he might owe.)

It’s something of a crowning achievement for Trump, who has spent the last four years rewriting the playbook on how to make money from politics. He did what past presidents did — sell books and give speeches — but he also exploited his supporters in new ways, taking public the Trump Media and Technology Group, which created a Twitter knockoff that didn’t did not attract many users but nevertheless managed to inspire enthusiasm. investors. Shares of that company soared as soon as they hit the market, adding billions of dollars to Trump’s net worth. However, he had difficulty converting this equity into cash. Even after the lockup period expired, Trump did not sell any shares, perhaps fearing that it would send the stock price tumbling and wipe billions from his net worth.

Its crypto projects are the antidote, offering liquidity up front, that values ​​eventually collapse. Trump says he plans to post an additional 800 million $TRUMP memes during his second term.

Money is essential for the president. Before crypto mania, its balance sheet was estimated at $413 million, along with over $500 million in legal debts. As he appeals the cases that created those liabilities — two defamation suits and a fraud case — the interest continues to accrue, pushing Trump’s potential award closer to $600 million. Such figures might have worried him in the past. However, two days after winning back the White House, his second term is already proving more lucrative than any other in American history, eliminating any reason for concern.

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