Business
Here are the 4 pillars of Trump’s growing crypto empire—and the key people running the show
It’s no secret that President Trump, once a Bitcoin skeptic, has become a full-blown convert and that he and his family are using crypto to enrich themselves. What far fewer people understand is how Trump’s crypto ventures are structured on a corporate level. On the latest episode of Crypto Playbook (available on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube), Fortune journalist Ben Weiss—who has covered the Trump crypto empire from the inside—broke down how it is in fact a stable of separate businesses.
“In the Trump crypto ecosystem there are four different teams, all interrelated, but all kind of separate, that are all doing their own crypto stuff with Trump’s imprimatur,” explained Weiss.
The first of these businesses launched in December of 2022, well before Trump embraced crypto more broadly at a Bitcoin event on the campaign trail. It consisted of Trump NFTs and, following his election last November, has expanded to encompass Trump’s personal memecoin, which currently has a market cap of over $1 billion. All of these operations are overseen by Bill Zanker, a longtime confidante and business partner of the President.
The second Trump crypto business to emerge, and by far the most significant, is World Liberty Financial, which the family launched last fall. Its assets include the token WLFI, whose supply is currently worth around $3 billion, as well as a stablecoin called USD1. The latter token was used by a U.A.E. firm to make a $2 billion investment in the crypto firm, Binance. Meanwhile, World Liberty has also created a publicly traded entity whose share value is tied in large part to the WLFI token.
According to Weiss, the day-to-day operations of World Liberty Financial are handled by a pair of long-time crypto veterans named Zak Folkman and Chase Herro. The real power, though, appears to lie with Trump’s oldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric, who have been intimately involved with many of the company’s key decisions.
While Zanker’s NFT and memecoin operation as well as World Liberty Financial serve as vehicles to make money for the Trump family, the two entities have at times clashed. Weiss explained that one clash arose a few months back when Zanker announced plans to launch a crypto wallet only to be rebuffed by Trump’s sons, who have wallet plans of their own.
The third corporate vehicle for the President’s crypto ambitions is Trump Media & Technology Group, which once existed primarily to run the Truth Social platform, but has since expanded to operate a Bitcoin holding company akin to Michael Saylor’s Strategy. This business has also entered tie-ups with third party firms like Singapore-based Crypto.com.
Finally, there is American Bitcoin, a crypto mining operation. This most recent venture came about after the Trump operation absorbed the mining operations of a firm called Hut 8. Overseen by Eric Trump, the operations now run under the new American Bitcoin name and benefit from the Trump family’s branding.
While all four of the Trump crypto entities are bringing in money for the family—billions by most estimates—their product lines and business purposes are often changing and evolving.
“The way I think about a lot of these Trump crypto ventures is: ‘what was Trump’s business play before he became president?’ He took his name, lent it out, and got money for lending it out. Right? He put it on steaks, he put it on classes — he did a bunch of different things. That’s kind of what’s happening here,” said Weiss.
