Leo here, back from paternity leave and ready to write about my favorite subject: the First Family’s forays into blockchain. After endless complaints of persecution under the Biden administration, the crypto industry found a steadfast ally in President Trump, in no small part thanks to its hefty warchest of campaign donations. But the Trump family realized that the sector’s riches extended beyond paltry Super PAC contributions. The Trumps launched their own crypto projects, from memecoins to mining operations to a nebulous platform called World Liberty Financial that promises to pave the future of finance through products like its stablecoin USD1.
While crypto proponents would contend that the rise of stablecoins, tokenization, or decentralized exchanges were the most consequential development of 2025, it’s hard to argue that the Trump family’s entanglement in the blockchain industry, especially as it seeks to transform the plumbing of the global financial system, is not the prevailing storyline.
While the Trumps and their supporters have maintained that the First Family’s work in crypto brings an entrepreneurial spirit to the White House, rather than a blatant conflict of interest, their latest gambit pushes the boundary like never before (and that’s including Trump inviting the top holders of his memecoin to a private dinner at his Virginia golf club). Last week, World Liberty Financial announced that it had applied for a national banking license with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, weeks after a bevy of crypto companies including Circle, Ripple, and Paxos received their own conditional approval from the financial regulator.
