The Trump family co-founded World Liberty Financial in August 2024 and sold $1.5 billion worth of crypto tokens to Alt5 Sigma, a publicly traded company later renamed AI Financial Corp. The family received roughly $500 million from this token sale alone [1]. Since mid-2024, the Trumps have earned an estimated $2.3 billion from four main crypto ventures while outside investors faced collective losses totaling $2.3 billion through April 2026, including unrealized declines [2, 3].
The startup costs for the Trump family’s largest crypto project and related initiatives likely totaled less than $1 million, according to experts [2]. The ventures followed a pattern of minimal initial investment by the Trump family combined with heavy promotion—mainly by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.—to drive large investments from the public, followed by severe value drops causing major losses on investor holdings [3].
One notable example is the $TRUMP meme coin, which the Trump family heavily promoted. By May 2026, the coin’s value had collapsed to under 6% of its original price; one investor reported losing $1,880 of a $2,000 initial investment [3]. AI Financial’s stock price plummeted from $8.97 on August 8, 2025, to $0.66 on June 8, 2026—a 93% loss for shareholders [1].
AI Financial has seen significant corporate turmoil, cycling through its third CEO and third auditor since the Trump partnership began in August 2024 [1]. In January 2026, AI Financial took a loan from World Liberty Financial and used part of the proceeds to try to boost its share price, but the effort failed to halt its decline [1].
The Democracy Defenders Fund called on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate AI Financial in April 2026, questioning the whereabouts of the crypto proceeds. "The question now is: What happened to all that money?" said Virginia Canter, the fund’s chief anti-corruption counsel [1]. The SEC declined to comment on any investigations related to AI Financial or the Trump family’s involvement [1].
Santa Clara University Finance Professor Seoyoung Kim described the Trump family’s initial investment as "just small amounts" amid the vast sums involved from public investors [2]. The next major company event will come with continued regulatory scrutiny following the Democracy Defenders Fund’s petition to the SEC earlier this year.
