Crypto Corruption in Trump World

The most famous ad of Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign taunted his rival, Kamala Harris, with a catch phrase poking fun at pronoun correctness: “She is for they/them; I am for you.” Since then, we’ve learned that it should have read “I’m for me/me.” While corruption is a perennial political and economic problem, the intersection of Trump and crypto has boosted corruption to a whole new level. 

Trump 1.0 was a huge crypto sceptic. But Trump 2.0 has become one of the world’s biggest crypto evangelists. He has vowed to make the United States the crypto capital of the world. While Trump 1.0 and his family made most of their then-dwindling fortune from real estate and celebrity endorsements, Trump 2.0’s newfound family wealth has come from crypto. Trump has used the powers of the presidency to trade presidential favors for vast sums of money. Cryptocurrencies and assets have proved a superb vehicle for collecting on this largesse. (For more details, see my recent article, “Crypto Chokehold.”) 

The simplest vehicles for enriching himself are so-called “meme coins.” These are cryptocurrencies that are essentially collectibles: fans and people seeking influence can buy the $TRUMP or $MELANIA meme coins with all of the profits going to the president and first lady. These buyers were hoping for a big gain in the price of meme coins or a political favor from Trump. Many were disappointed. Recent investors have lost over $4 billion as the $TRUMP and $MELANIA meme coins have tanked, with the Trumps and the in-the-know investors who sold early laughing all the way to the bank. 

The transactions involving World Liberty Financial are much more significant in terms of money and corruption. World Liberty is a company that the Trump family cocreated with Steve Witkoff, Trump’s official Mideast envoy, and others. Trump’s and Witkoff’s sons are also heavily involved. World Liberty issues stablecoins and other crypto products. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies whose value is tied to a national currency, in this case, the U.S. dollar. (Here is a helpful primer on crypto.) The Trumps and Witkoffs acquire money from the people who buy these stablecoins and earn profits by investing the proceeds in financial assets such as U.S. Treasury securities and other more lucrative investments. The more money that flows into these stablecoins, the more money their families make. 

One of the most transparent as well as egregious examples of crypto pay-and-play is the well-documented collusion between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and World Liberty in mid-January 2025. Using his role as Mideast envoy, Witkoff acquired a $2 billion investment from a UAE investor (Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan). The investment was made using the company’s stablecoin, USD1. Coincidentally, the Trump administration then agreed to sell the UAE highly specialized computer chips despite national security concerns that this chip technology could be shared with China. Trump made millions.

Another spectacular example points to the relationship between Changpeng Zhao, the former CEO of Binance, the crypto trading platform, and Trump. Zhao—the richest crypto operator in the world, with a net worth of more than $40 billion—was convicted in 2023 of violating money laundering laws (including laundering money for terrorist organizations). He served four months in prison and stepped down as CEO of Binance. But he had done favors for the Trump enterprise and ended up receiving a presidential pardon.  

Corruption doesn’t necessarily rely on crypto. In Trump’s first term, those hoping to gain influence booked rooms in his hotel in Washington, D.C., as well as other properties. But as law professors Robert Thomas and Jeffrey Zhang explain in “Crypto Kleptocracy,” meme coins and stablecoins have opened up a whole new world of corrupt ploys that could long outlast the Trumps.  

Crypto corruption is not only unethical. It is dangerous. Political corruption on the vast scale facilitated by crypto erodes the public’s faith in the value of government and the rule of law. It also threatens economic stability. Evidence suggests that fraud played a role in the financial crisis of 2007–2009.

So, what is to be done about the “me/me” state of Trump’s crypto-enabled corruption? We are often told that the electorate is inured to, numbed by, or simply bored by tales of corruption by Trump and his minions.

All I can say is this: Wake up America, before it’s too late.

Gerald Epstein is a professor of economics and co-director at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), UMass-Amherst.