Trump's Cryptocurrency Grift Exposed: Experts Sound Alarm on $1.4 Billion Scandal
President Donald Trump and his family's cryptocurrency dealings have been widely criticized as corrupt and unconstitutional. The New York Times reported that recent financial disclosures show Trump made at least $1 billion in 2025 from these dealings, with estimates suggesting the total to be over $1.4 billion.
The crypto business has been described by experts as 'sleaziest' and a 'blatant and gargantuan' conflict of interest. Thomas Edsall wrote that it exemplifies all the 'sleaziest aspects' of Trump's code of conduct, with estimates suggesting investors lost nearly $4 billion from purchases of Trump-linked crypto.
Eswar Prasad, a professor at Cornell University and senior fellow at Brookings Institution, called Trump's crypto ventures 'a blatant and gargantuan conflict of interest.' He noted that Trump has been explicit in his boosterism of the crypto industry, which has given the industry greater legitimacy along with lax regulation.
Nicholas Weaver, a senior research scientist at Berkeley's International Computer Science Institute, explained why Trump's dealings are particularly damaging: 'Everything in cryptocurrency is zero-sum at best and negative-sum in most of the cases, so every $ ‘made’ by someone comes at someone else’s expense.'