Last time, we looked at the Trump family and how they made a decent amount of money thanks to crypto. Today, we’ll go a step further. We’ll look at the biggest scams the Trump family has been accused of. And there were quite a few. Let’s take a look at them one by one.
Article content:
- Trump and crypto – What can one expect?
- Was this market manipulation? Trump, tweets, and crypto
- Family for all the money – Cryptocurrencies and the Trump dynasty
- More problems arise – The Trump family's tricks
- Trump's economy is like a rolling mastodon
- Cryptocurrencies and politics — Trump isn't the only one taking advantage of this
- What can investors take away from all this?
Trump and crypto – What can one expect?
When you say “Trump” and crypto in the same sentence, most people perk up. Some immediately think of huge profits, while others think of scandals and fraud. The Trump family has been linked several times to allegations of market manipulation and various dubious crypto projects. It has never been officially proven, but the pattern repeats itself over and over again.
Even before Donald Trump entered the White House, he had a network of businesses around him that operated on the edge of ethics. After he took office, the situation changed. His every word began to move the market. When he wrote on Twitter in 2019 that he was “not a fan of Bitcoin,” the price of the cryptocurrency immediately fell. But shortly thereafter, several funds linked to his circle made money. They bet the exact opposite — and made millions.
Was this market manipulation? Trump, tweets, and crypto
That was the first time people started talking about possible market manipulation. It couldn’t be proven, but it was no coincidence. According to Reuters, some people around Trump had access to pre-planned tweets. This means they could trade with an advantage that ordinary investors did not have.
After leaving office, Trump went all in on crypto. In 2022, Trump introduced Trump Digital Trading Cards — a series of NFTs depicting him as a superhero or cowboy. At first glance, it seemed like a joke. But from an economic perspective, it was a calculated move. The NFTs sold for $99 and sold out in a single day. But then their price plummeted. Analysts at CoinDesk found that some of the first buyers were connected to his own marketing team. In other words, people close to him were able to profit before the general public had a chance to do so.
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Family for all the money – Cryptocurrencies and the Trump dynasty
While Donald was the face of the project, his sons were working behind the scenes. According to the media, Eric and Donald Jr. participated in several crypto projects that presented themselves as patriotic alternatives to traditional currencies. The most famous of these was MAGACOIN. It was created in 2021 and promised to support the conservative movement. However, it turned out that the developers kept 75% of all tokens for themselves. The ideological project turned into a classic crypto scam.
Ivanka Trump, on the other hand, appeared in environmental blockchain startups. She invested through her husband Jared Kushner’s fund. For example, the company Apeiron promised carbon-neutral NFTs and a green blockchain. But according to an SEC investigation, some of the emissions data turned out to be fabricated. So here, too, it was more about marketing than real environmentalism.
More problems arise – The Trump family’s tricks
According to Forbes, the Trumps and their entourage used three main tricks. Manipulating sentiment through social media. Selling “patriotic” products to supporters. And using information from behind the political scenes. Officially, nothing was ever proven against them. But their actions made sense — at least from a profit perspective.
The year 2023 brought another bizarre chapter. TrumpCoin 2.0 appeared on the scene. The creators claimed it was a fan project to support Trump’s new campaign. After a few weeks, however, the website disappeared and the token accounts were empty. Blockchain analysts found that a large portion of the money had disappeared through anonymous mixers. Donald Trump’s team, of course, had “nothing to do with it.” But the circumstances suggested that someone in his circle might have had a hand in the whole affair.
The interesting thing is that Trump himself did not believe in crypto for a long time. In 2021, he called Bitcoin a “threat to the dollar.” Three years later, however, he changed his tune. Suddenly, he was talking about blockchain as “the future of freedom.” He began accepting donations in crypto, and his campaign had official wallets for BTC, ETH, and USDT. Immediately after his speeches, the prices of some smaller tokens promoted by his influencers began to rise. Coincidence? Hardly.
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Trump’s economy is like a rolling mastodon
This created a phenomenon that journalists dubbed Trumponomics 2.0: a combination of politics, marketing, crypto, and media spectacle. The Guardian wrote in 2024 that after each of Trump’s speeches on the economy, market volatility increased by 5 to 12%. Those who knew in advance what Trump was going to say could make a decent profit.
Another stir came this year, in 2025. It emerged that several companies linked to Trump Media & Technology Group had traded cryptocurrencies just before a new feature was announced — a crypto wallet in the Truth Social app. Shortly thereafter, the stock price skyrocketed. It looked like a classic “pump and dump.” Buy before the announcement, sell right after it. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began investigating who had access to the information beforehand.
Cryptocurrencies and politics — Trump isn’t the only one taking advantage of this
To be clear, Trump isn’t the only politician mixing cryptocurrencies with PR. The difference is that he made a show of it. He can connect populism, the market, and entertainment. When he sells NFTs, he makes it an event. When he talks about blockchain, he uses big gestures and strong words. People enjoy it. And behind it all is a business that generates millions.
Trump has never hidden the fact that he wants to make money even after leaving office. Cryptocurrencies have helped him more than anyone expected. It’s not a classic scam, but rather a clever form of brand monetization. He is essentially selling himself in digital form. And it works — because many people are not buying an investment, but a symbol.
What can investors take away from all this?
From the perspective of the average investor, however, this represents a risk. The crypto market is unregulated, and anything that a celebrity influences can change in value within a matter of hours. If that celebrity also has political power, it is doubly dangerous. It is no wonder that the SEC is already talking about the need for new rules for so-called political tokens.
The Trump family has managed to combine marketing, populism, and financial speculation into one package. Their every move causes a reaction on the stock market. Every word can influence prices. And every scandal attracts new fans.
Maybe it’s genius. Maybe it’s dangerous. But one thing is certain — Trump has turned investing into a reality show. Whether you see it as a farce or a new model of politics, this period will go down in history. One day, it will be written about as a time when politics definitively merged with crypto. And when it was decided whether money and influence could still be separated, or whether they had simply merged into one.
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