Trump White House ‘The Most Corrupt Crypto Startup Operation in the World’: House Democrats

Donald Trump and his family have used the presidency to make hundreds of millions of dollars from “cryptocurrency schemes,” according to a new partisan report from House Judiciary Committee Democrats.

The report, signed by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), seeks to document how President Trump has doubled his net worth since the start of his 2024 election campaign, primarily through the launch of cryptocurrency-related ventures and businesses.

With reference to studies of ReutersThe report notes that Trump and his family made $800 million from cryptocurrency sales in the first half of 2025 alone, and that the total value of cryptocurrency and stocks owned by the family now stands at $11 billion.

House Judiciary Committee Democrats also claim that much of this wealth has ties to foreigners and even organized crime, most notably through ownership of the cryptocurrency World Liberty Financial (WLFI).

Addressing publicly identified investors in WLFI, the report says: “The most prominent example is Justin Sun, a Chinese-born crypto billionaire who founded the Tron cryptocurrency exchange which has been described as a haven for ‘illegal crypto activity.’” While Sun is the founder of Tronit’s a smart contract blockchain rather than an exchange – although Sun does have links to the crypto exchange HTX, and bills itself as an ‘advisor’ to the company.

Crypto Industry “Buy Access”

The report also suggests that the Trump family’s ownership of tokens has opened the White House to outside influence and lobbying from foreign actors and the cryptocurrency industry.

“Foreign actors and corporate interests have bought access and favors from the President and his administration by funneling money into the Trump family’s cryptocurrency ventures and making large, politically motivated donations,” the press release said. “In return, these lenders have received quick returns: regulatory rollbacks, policy giveaways, and the quiet termination of federal investigations into major players in the crypto industry.”

These claims come in the wake of President Trump pardoning BitMex founder Arthur Hayes in March, and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao in October.

They also come as the World Federation of Exchanges – an industry body representing major exchanges around the world – has written a letter to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, urging the regulator not to grant cryptocurrency companies regulatory exemptions to offer tokenized shares.

The report also notes that the Trump administration has ended investigations or cases against several major cryptocurrency companies, including Coinbase, Gemini, Robinhood, Ripple, Crypto.com, Uniswap, Yuga Labs and Kraken.

Relatedly, President Trump has disbanded the Justice Department’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, while also rescinding investor protection rules such as his predecessor, Joe Biden’s Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets executive order.

For Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, this far-reaching shift has allowed President Trump and his family to “accumulate billions of dollars in cryptocurrency in less than a year,” something that points to “flanking weakness” in the United States’ campaign finance systems and its laws governing lobbying, conflicts of interest and bribery.

Raskin summarized the partisan report, saying Trump has turned the “Oval Office into the most corrupt crypto startup operation in the world” while dismantling regulations that protect private investors.

“This report shows how Trump’s so-called ‘pro-crypto agenda’ is just another Trump family self-enrichment scheme built on pay-to-play deals and corrupt foreign interests seeking secret channels of access and influence,” he said.

Anti-corruption nonprofits also have strong opinions on the president’s involvement in cryptocurrencies, with Bartlett Collins Naylor – financial policy advocate at Congress Watch (a division of Public Citizen) – telling Declutter that it “constitutes the greatest corruption in presidential history.”

“That is not only the opinion of Public Citizen, but also that of the nation’s leading ethics experts,” he said. “He violates at least three laws: soliciting a gift, accepting gifts from foreign leaders, exchanging presidential favors for money.”

In response to the activities of Trump and his family, Naylor called on Congress to ban any elected official from trading cryptocurrencies.

This includes creating or sponsoring meme coins, which he describes as “essentially a means” for the issuers or sponsors of such tokens to receive bribes.

He concluded: “Realistically, the only thing we can do in this Congress is secure a GAO [Government Accountability Office] determination that meme sponsorship is a gift request.

The White House has been contacted for comment.