These findings are detailed in a Reuters investigation.
The journalists discovered that all four of the family’s crypto projects operate under a similar scheme. The Trumps invest a minimum of their own funds (or none at all), actively promote the project, profit from investors, and then the asset price crashes.
Among these projects are the flagship World Liberty Financial, the meme coin TRUMP (whose value has fallen by 97% since January 2025), as well as ALT5 Sigma (now called AI Financial Corp) and American Bitcoin. The stocks of these firms have plummeted by tens of percent.
“If people are buying something speculative, they need to be aware of the risk. If they’ve decided to hold on in the hope of further growth, well, that’s their business,” Wilbur Ross, who served as Secretary of Commerce during Trump’s first term, told Reuters.
Reuters reports the story of investor Fatima Elghadavi. She invested $2,000 in the TRUMP meme coin, believing in the “Trump brand.” By the end of May, her investment was worth less than $120. Fatima herself now believes it was a pump-and-dump scheme.
Eight ethics experts surveyed by Reuters stated that the family’s enrichment at the expense of an industry that the president’s administration regulates and promotes constitutes an unprecedented conflict of interest, though it may be legal.
