Trump and cryptocurrency: Serious suspicions of conflicts of interest

“America voted for corruption.” That is how Walter Shaub, former director of the United States’ Office of Government Ethics, described US President Donald Trump’s initial actions to support the cryptocurrency sector, in January 2025.

The latest example: a private dinner organized by The Trump Organization on Thursday, May 22, in Washington DC. With the US president attending, the event was billed as a gathering for the biggest buyers of the eponymous cryptocurrency $TRUMP. This influence operation has not gone over particularly well. “The American people deserve the unwavering assurance that access to the presidency is not being offered for sale to the highest bidder in exchange for the President’s own financial gain,” wrote Democratic senators Adam Schiff and Elizabeth Warren, denouncing the move.

More and more such statements have been issued by Trump’s opponents, all while these kinds of “crypto” projects − which directly benefit the president or his family − have proliferated. In a report published on April 23, the State Democracy Defenders Fund, a left-leaning US nonprofit organization, estimated that cryptocurrency-related assets now represent nearly 40% of Trump’s total wealth.

You have 85.01% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.