Donald Trump tried to defend the money he’s made from crypto while taking questions in the Oval Office on Monday. The president has raked in over $1 billion from cryptocurrency ventures, according to his latest financial disclosure documents, made public last week. And even MAGA-friendly news outlets like the Wall Street Journal and Fox News are having a difficult time spinning that as a good thing. President Trump made more than $2.2 billion in 2025, according to his financial disclosure forms, $1.4 billion of which came from his two biggest crypto ventures. The president launched a memecoin shortly before he took office in January 2025 called $TRUMP and owns a considerable stake in the crypto company co-founded by his sons, World Liberty Financial. Trump recounted Monday how, in his view, former President Joe Biden was “killing” crypto with “weaponization.” In reality, the Department of Justice and SEC were going after crypto-related fraud, including FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who’s now in prison. Trump acknowledged that he used to be a crypto skeptic, but insisted his mind was changed because he didn’t want China to become dominant in crypto.
“What he was doing to the crypto, they were putting people in jail,” said Trump of the Biden administration. “Good people, great, prestigious people. They were putting them in jail. And I said, ‘you’re going to be kidding.’ And they were trying to destroy the industry.”
