$80 million a year? How the Trump family relies on "its own stablecoins" to share the pie from huge cryptocurrencies in the Middle East

Author: LEO SCHWARTZ / BEN WEISS

Compilation and Organization: Comparison of BitpushNews

President Trump and his family are increasingly closely connected with cryptocurrencies. The latest example happened last week when Trump’s son Eric Trump announced that UAE venture capital firm MGX will use stablecoins issued by World Liberty Financial, a blockchain company owned by the Trump family, to pay for its $2 billion investment in cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

The Trump family and their business partners are expected to profit from the deal, but the specific amount is difficult to judge because the details are not transparent. Binance did not respond to a request for comment, and a spokesperson for World Liberty Financial also declined to provide more details other than public information.

Despite limited information disclosure, Fortune still provides an upper limit estimate for the Trump family's possible profit by interviewing experts in the stablecoin field and combining analysis of the current crypto ecosystem.

Stablecoin business: big and invisible

Stablecoin is the latest link in Trump's expansion of crypto empire, but it has long been an important part of the crypto industry. Tether, Circle, and later PayPal and Ripple all made a fortune by issuing stablecoins. Tether's revenue reached US$5.6 billion in the latest quarter, and Circle's total revenue in 2024 also reached US$1.7 billion.

Because of this, World Liberty Financial issued its own dollar stablecoin USD1 in late March this year. Like most stablecoins that anchor the dollar, USD1 is backed by short-term Treasury bonds and other dollar-like assets, usually generates an annualized return of about 4% – and most of this interest is usually owned by the issuer.

If Binance holds USD1, World Liberty Financial will charge interest on its reserve assets, which is 4%, which could bring as much as $80 million in profits over a year.

However, there are great variables in this number. For example, if World Liberty exclusively enjoys all interest income, Binance has no incentive to hold USD1 for a long time and may convert it into BNB or other assets that can be earned.

In addition, according to the spokesperson, in addition to Treasury bonds, USD1's reserve assets also have various "cash equivalents". However, World Liberty has not announced the specific asset composition, so there may be cash components that do not generate income.

Omid Malekan, a crypto scholar at Columbia University’s School of Business, pointed out that MGX may not have actually sent funds to Binance, and if Binance directly clears USD1 after receiving it, World Liberty will not be able to earn any interest. In addition, Binance may also use these USD1s for transaction clearing on the platform or employee salary payments.

Edward Woodford, co-founder and CEO of Zero Hash (stablecoin infrastructure provider), also said: "Suppliers and employees need payments, so these tokens may be destroyed soon." ("Destruction" means using stablecoins to exchange cash for issuers.)

Maybe Binance gets a share of the pie?

Todd Phillips, a law professor at Georgia State University, noted that Binance may have entered into some kind of profit sharing agreement with World Liberty Financial. He cited an example that Binance had previously reached a similar agreement with Circle, which in addition to paying a one-time $60 million, also paid Binance monthly to promote USDC and promised to keep some of the funds in the stablecoin.

If Binance and World Liberty also have such cooperation arrangements, the latter's profits may shrink significantly, but the liquidity and market visibility of its stablecoins will be significantly improved.

Binance has partnered with stablecoin issuer Paxos to launch BUSD, but the currency has been suspended by regulators in early 2023. Most of USD1 are currently issued based on Binance’s own blockchain.

"Why is USD1?" Malekan said. "Maybe they just gave Binance the best terms for cooperation."

To sum up, while the Trump family may theoretically make $80 million in profits through USD1, it also depends on whether the tokens will be destroyed or whether the profits need to be shared.

Democrats fight back: "Naked conflict of interest"

Regardless of the specific agreement between Binance and World Liberty, Democratic lawmakers have viewed the deal as new evidence of a conflict of interest between the Trump family and the crypto industry.

California Representative Maxine Waters, a senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, left angrily at a blockchain hearing on Tuesday, protesting the Trump family's involvement in regulatory legislation while making profits.

"I am extremely worried that Republicans are not only blind to Trump's corruption, but are even helping him and his family legitimize their self-profiting behavior through cryptocurrency," she said in a statement to Fortune.

This storm also affected the Stablecoin Regulation Act, which originally received bipartisan support in Congress. A group of Democratic senators who had previously supported the bill collectively opposed the latest version last weekend because of concerns over Trump’s connection to USD1.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren said bluntly: "This is naked corruption, and no senator should support it."