President Trump’s forays into cryptocurrency delivered him a windfall of more than $1 billion last year, according to his latest financial disclosure report, an unprecedented surge in income that came alongside earnings from royalty deals, real estate and legal settlements.
Trump and his family invested heavily in crypto businesses during the first year of his second term. That isn’t just generating on-paper wealth, but real-world profits.
The earnings last year included $635 million in royalties through an entity linked to Trump’s memecoin, which launched just days before his inauguration, and more than $500 million in proceeds from token sales by World Liberty Financial, the Trumps’ flagship crypto venture, according to the filing from the Office of Government Ethics.
The president tangled with many big companies and wound up earning at least $86.5 million in legal settlements that were detailed in the disclosure. That includes a $24.5 million haul from Meta and $16 million apiece from Paramount and Disney. Trump was also active in the stock market, and his biggest holdings in the year included large-cap stalwarts such as Amazon, Meta, Nvidia and Tesla.
The Trumps operate a vast business empire whose interests stretch from hotels and golf resorts to brand licensing to drone companies. The first family has made crypto a particular focus, and the president has also advanced policies to lighten regulation of the emerging sector.
Government ethics watchdogs have criticized Trump for expanding his business empire while in office. “The president’s conflicts of interest with the crypto industry are unprecedented,” said Kedric Payne, senior director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, an ethics watchdog group. “We have never seen a president have direct conflicts of interest with his financial holdings and the policies he supports, and it’s another example why we need widespread ethics reform now.”
In a statement Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said Trump had turned America into the “crypto capital of the world.”
“Neither the President nor his family has ever engaged—or will ever engage—in conflicts of interest,” she said. “All actions by President Trump and his administration are taken in the best interest of the American people.”
The annual disclosure arrived a month after a separate report showed a surge in stock trading by the president in the first quarter. Tuesday’s filing also didn’t include ventures linked to Trump’s eldest sons, who now lead the Trump Organization and have made investments into drone makers, bitcoin miners and more since Trump’s re-election.
Trump reported $4.7 million in income last year from Trump-branded watches, as well as $1.9 million in royalties from his “Save America” book. Multimillion-dollar licensing deals linked to real-estate developers stretched from Romania to India to across the Middle East. A $6,484-a-month pension from the Screen Actors Guild continued paying out.
The president also reported a surge in income tied to his golf clubs in the U.S. and elsewhere, which have boosted fees and become a hub for donors and favor-seekers alike. Trump reported $77 million in income from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, disclosures show, up from $50 million a year earlier. An entity linked to the Trump National Doral in Miami raked in another $122 million last year, up from $110 million a year earlier.
Trump also reported receiving gifts totaling more than $370,000, which primarily consisted of tickets to major sporting events. The disclosure tallied $10.7 million in income to first lady Melania Trump linked to the Amazon MGM Studios-backed “Melania” documentary, as well as $6 million more for a licensing agreement for the sale of digital collectibles known as nonfungible tokens.
Trump has rapidly expanded his crypto wealth through ventures that have drawn significant scrutiny. World Liberty, co-founded by Trump and his sons, has launched both a token and a dollar-pegged stablecoin. Trump’s memecoin has heavily targeted his loyal base, offering high-ranking memecoin holders dinner with the president.
But even as crypto has proven lucrative for the president, many traders and political followers who invested in Trump-branded projects have fared poorly. The market cap for the president’s memecoin reached a peak of nearly $15 billion before prices began to crater within days of its launch, recently veering below $400 million. World Liberty’s WLFI tokens have plummeted alongside them.
Write to David Uberti at david.uberti@wsj.com and Vicky Ge Huang at vicky.huang@wsj.com