Author: Mat Di Salvo Compiler: TechFlow
Brief Overview
Donald Trump returned to the White House as the 47th President of the United States, and his campaign platform was to support cryptocurrency.
However, Trump did not always hold this position: he once called Bitcoin a "scam" and said he was not a fan of it.
Today, Trump has launched his own Solana meme coin, multiple NFT series, and a DeFi project.
Bitcoin-friendly Donald Trump won the November election and was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States in January. But before he was officially sworn in, the commander-in-chief launched a meme coin.
Yes, you read that correctly. The TRUMP token, which runs on the Solana network, was once worth $14 billion. Although its market value has since fallen to $2.9 billion, the move shows the new president’s growing enthusiasm for the digital asset space, and his campaign’s message is to help Bitcoin supporters and the rapidly growing field as a whole.
Trump branded himself as a crypto-friendly candidate ahead of the heated November election, receiving millions of dollars in cash and digital asset donations from Silicon Valley tech leaders. Ultimately, he won the election.
But it wasn’t always this way: President Trump was a staunch critic of cryptocurrency. So how did we get here?
“I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, they are not money, their value is wildly volatile, and has no basis in currency. Unregulated crypto assets can facilitate illegal conduct, including the drug trade, and other illicit activity…” — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2019
Trump’s most iconic early comments on cryptocurrencies date back to 2019, when he made it clear as president that he was not a fan of Bitcoin.
“I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, they are not money, their value is wildly volatile, and has no basis in currency,” he tweeted at the time, slamming Facebook’s plans to launch a digital currency.
"In the United States, we have only one true currency that is stronger than ever, both reliable and trustworthy," he added. "It is undoubtedly the most dominant currency in the world and will always remain that way. It's called the dollar!"
Trump reiterated his views during the 2021 Bitcoin bull run. "Bitcoin looks like a scam," he said on Fox Business Channel, while reiterating his hope that the dollar will become the world's top currency.
Enter the NFT World
It took him a long time to make it clear that he likes the top cryptocurrency, and the journey began with an unexpected crypto craze: NFT collectibles.
By the end of 2021, after Trump left the White House, his wife Melania announced her plans for an NFT collection based on Solana. Solana Labs clarified that it had nothing to do with the collection launched on the blockchain, and despite his wife's involvement in the field, Trump continued to slam cryptocurrencies as "dangerous."
"Excited about this new project, which combines my passion for the arts and my commitment to helping our nation's children achieve their unique American dream."
— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) December 16, 2021
However, the following year, the commander-in-chief launched his own NFT collection. Minted on Ethereum scaling network Polygon, the digital trading card collection was initially ridiculed but still quickly sold out and earned millions of dollars.
Trump later said he launched the collection simply because he thought they were "kind of cute." He has since launched more collections on Polygon and even minted a third set on Bitcoin through the Ordinals protocol. The fourth collection, launched in August 2024, is the most numerous NFT to date.
Trump even claimed that the success of his NFT collection, and the sheer number of buyers using crypto rather than fiat, helped change his mind about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
According to an investigation by blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, digital wallets associated with the president show that he has earned millions in royalty income from NFTs and holds some of the largest unofficial Trump meme coins, which may have been sent to wallets without Trump's knowledge or consent.
Trump Embraces Crypto
But it was just last year that Trump really stepped up his support for cryptocurrencies. “I make money with it, and I have fun with it,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box in March. “Crazy new currencies, that’s what I call them.” Then, while hosting NFT holders at his Mar-a-Lago resort in May, he told the crowd that he was “very happy with crypto” and slammed Biden and the Democratic Party for being “against it.” Many see the event as a turning point in the crypto policy conversation. In May, rumors circulated that Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and the biggest donor to Trump’s campaign, had been advising the presidential candidate on crypto strategy. (Musk has denied the reports.) In July, the Republican Party released a draft party platform that explicitly mentioned cryptocurrency, a first for the industry.
After surviving an assassination attempt in July, the business tycoon and former reality TV star received public support from Musk, as well as support from many other prominent figures in the digital asset space. Major crypto figures such as Gemini's Winklevoss brothers and Kraken founder Jesse Powell have donated a large amount of money to Trump.
Trump then chose Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate. The vice presidential candidate was seen as a pro-crypto candidate at the time and disclosed holdings of between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of Bitcoin in 2021.
But the most obvious sign of Trump's embrace of cryptocurrency came when he spoke at the 2024 Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. At the event, he promised the audience that he would build a "strategic Bitcoin reserve" for the country and planned to make the United States the "crypto capital of the world."
The Trump family then launched a decentralized finance (DeFi) project called World Liberty Financial, with Trump himself posting multiple social media teasers in the early days of the project.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 29, 2024
The president’s son, Donald Jr., said the crypto platform would be egalitarian. “For too long, ordinary Americans have been exploited by big banks and the financial elite. It’s time we unite and take action,” he said on Twitter (now known as X).
The day after the second assassination attempt, Trump launched the project during a live interview with Rug Radio (a sister company of Decrypt). World Liberty Financial aims to provide cryptocurrency lending services on the Ethereum network.
The project had a somewhat flopped start compared to other crypto token launches, with only 4% of allocated tokens sold at launch. However, sales increased significantly ahead of Trump’s inauguration, and the remaining allocation sold out on January 20 — the day he returned to the White House.
Decrypt subsequently reported that the World Liberty Financial project launched its own stablecoin. On-chain data shows that the token is available on both Ethereum and Binance’s BNB chain.
The Republican Party has also added more crypto people to the team. Bitcoin supporter Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his campaign to support Trump and then joined Trump’s transition team. He is now the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, also became part of Trump’s political team and is now serving as Secretary of Commerce.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk, a well-known Dogecoin fan, is heading up the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a budget-cutting and job-cutting initiative, though he says he will soon step aside.
Crypto Ambitions Grow
In September, Trump became the first current or former U.S. president we know of to have purchased something with Bitcoin: At the popular New York City crypto bar PubKey, the former president paid for a burger with the cryptocurrency.
“This is the beginning of a new era,” he said, referring to the digital asset industry. And it’s not just talk: On January 17, he launched a memecoin running on Solana, and the token is now one of the most valuable memecoins in existence.
The launch of the TRUMP token was widely criticized by politicians and analysts, and was seen by some as a potential avenue for corruption. But while the price has fallen sharply from its peak, it still sees trading demand, including in April when Trump revealed plans to host an exclusive dinner for top TRUMP holders.
President Trump doesn’t want to stop there, however.
The Republican built up a strategic Bitcoin reserve within his first three months in office and became the first president to sign a crypto-related bill — ending the IRS’s so-called decentralized finance (DeFi) broker rule, which could jeopardize the development of crypto applications in the United States.
Trump’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has also dropped multiple lawsuits against crypto companies by the previous administration, and his family continues — albeit controversially — to advance its own crypto business: Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are launching American Bitcoin, which, in partnership with bitcoin mining company Hut8, plans to become “the world’s largest and most efficient bitcoin miner.”
Trump’s media company, Trump Media and Technology Group, also signed a deal with Crypto.com in March to offer ETF products, and Trump Media itself plans to invest its own money in these products.
Trump’s critics argue that the president’s digital asset business poses a conflict of interest; Silicon Valley bigwigs say he supports innovation. One thing is certain, though: President Trump appears to be going all-in on cryptocurrency, leaving behind his past views on the industry.
Anais
