Corruption: Cryptocurrency

Trump's official actions regarding cryptocurrency may the most egregious example of a conflict of interest. Trump has a large financial interest in cryptocurrency: His 2026 Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics shows that in 2025 he received $527 million in income from the sale of cryptocurrency tokens by World Liberty Financial Inc. (WLFI) alone. WLFI is a "decentralized finance" (DeFi) corporation founded by by the Trump family. It issues two cryptocurrency tokens: $WLFI, and the "stablecoin" USD1. It also has major holdings of Ethereum, wrapped Bitcoin, and the $TRUMP and $MELANIA memecoins, among others.
Trump and his family receive 75% of the revenue generated by WLFI's cryptocurrency token sales.

For comparison Trump's 2025 Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report shows that he received just over $57 million in income from WLFI token sales in 2024 - about 11% of the amount for 2025, after he took office.

Trump's large financial stake in cryptocurrency means any Trump administration action on cryptocurrency inherently poses a conflict of interest. His administration has already taken some actions that appear problematic.

On 27 Feb 2025 the SEC announced that it would not regulate memecoins, on the grounds that they are not securities.
As we already noted Trump profits from WLFI's memecoin sales.
On 2 March 2025 Trump announced the creation of a "U.S. Crypto Reserve" in a social media post , and specifically stated that it would include Cardano (ADA), Ripple (XRP), and Solana (SOL). Four days later Trump issued Executive Order 14233 formally directing the Secretary of the Treasury to create a "United States Digital Asset Stockpile", and also a "Strategic Bitcoin Reserve" holding exclusively Bitcoin - one of the crypto assets held by Trump via World Liberty Financial.
On 7 April 2025 the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it was disbanding its National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) . The announcement stated that The Department of Justice is not a digital assets regulator.

Since Trump directly benefits from $WLFI and USD1 purchases, there is also an obvious concern that some $WLFI and USD1 purchases might be thinly disguised bribes. There are some indications that this is already happening.

In March 2023 the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Chinese businessman Justin Sun (Tron Foundation, BitTorrent Foundation, and Rainberry), alleging that Sun sold unregistered securities related to the sale and promotion of Tron (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT) tokens. The suit also alleged that Sun and his companies engaged in fraudulent trades between accounts that he controlled; and this was intended to artificially increase the price of TRX by creating the false impression that other inverstors were actively trading TRX.
From late 2024 through February 2025 Sun purchased $WLFI tokens with a total value of approximately $75 million.
In late February 2025 the SEC paused its lawsuit against Sun, citing negotiations for an out of court settlement.
On 5 March 2026 the SEC dismissed the case with an out of court settlement, with Rainberry (not Jason Sun) agreeing to pay a fine.
In early 2025 Abu Dhabi-state backed company MGX, led by Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the Abu Dhabi royal family, announced its intent to purchase $2 billion USD1 to finance the purchase of problematic crypto exchange Binance. Binance had previously pleaded guilty to violating the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act, which is intended to prevent money laundering. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four months in prison.
The Trump administration subsequently approved shipment of advanced computer chips that were under export restrictions to another of Tahnoun's companies, despite concerns that the chips might subsequently be shipped to the People's Republic of China.
In June 2025 WLFI and PancakeSwap formed a joint venture to promote USD1. PancakeSwap is a Chinese exchange operated by Binance.
In October 2025 Donald Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao.