From NFT to real estate chain games, sort out Trump's encrypted map

Is Trump going to build a "crypto-monopoly"? (Related reading: " The "old fan of Monopoly game" Trump enters the chain game, and plays another chess in the encrypted track ")

Although Trump has caused peace in the world after he came to power, it has to be admitted that for individuals, Trump is undoubtedly the best president in history. In addition to the already famous real estate industry, its media technology companies' promotion and the market's extremely suspicious stock operation, he has also opened up a brand new channel for profit-making -cryptocurrency, and made at least $1 billion from it.

To this day, Trump 's crypto territory has been expanding, from the initial NFT to Defi, from MEME to stablecoins, and finally to mining, a new crypto empire named after Trump seems to be rising. And just recently, according to Fortune, the Trump family is suspected to be targeting the chain game field again.

Looking back at Trump’s road to encryption, we must start with digital cards at the earliest. In June 2021, Trump also advocated the "Great Dollar Theory", denounced cryptocurrencies as "scam" that affects the value of the US dollar, and also said that cryptocurrencies should be closely regulated. But in less than a year and a half, Trump showed the law of true fragrance.

On December 15, 2022, Trump announced the issuance of the Trump Digital Transaction Card NFT through the social media website TruthSocial, which was minted on the Polygon blockchain, initially creating a total of 45,000 NFTs with a starting price of $99 each. Buying 45 digital transaction cards will receive a ticket to have dinner with Trump. This series of NFTs can support credit cards and WETH purchases, requiring KYC and email. Although it caused group ridicule at the time, with the traffic support and call from the former president, this series was still sold out less than a day after its launch. Judging from the trading volume of opensea, the total volume of this series of transactions reached 17,115 ETH, and currently there are 14,411 holders.

Simply put, the first attempt made Trump make $4.45 million. After tasting the sweetness, on April 18, 2023, Trump quickly released his second series of NFTs

• Trump Digital Trading Cards Series 2. The same marketing method, but the total number of series increased to 47,000, according to it, expressed confidence in serving as the 47th president, and the price was still $99. Although it was also sold out within 5 hours of the issuance, it plummeted rapidly the next day, which shows that the market has shown signs of fatigue in succession sales.

But Trump doesn't care about the market's face, he only cares about actual interests. Not long afterwards, Trump released the third series of MugShot Edition NFTs, which was even more outrageous this time, with a total of 100,000 pieces, with no additional price, and a special rights, spending $10,000 to be invited to the reception, and a unique Ordinal digital transaction card with a limited number of 200 pieces was also provided. It is precisely because of this series that Trump's subsequent "makes NFT hot again". Simple calculations, the Trump team has attracted $19 million in just a combination of three sets of NFTs, and according to its financial disclosure, the actual profit of NFTs has reached millions of dollars.

NFT is just the beginning, both to earn political donations and to call for canvassing votes. In September 2024, the Trump family announced the launch of the cryptocurrency project "World Liberty Financial". This company named Defi has not seen much improvement in Defi since its listing. Instead, it has continued to buy coins and build positions to attract attention. The total holdings currently have reached US$1 billion, with a loss of 0.87%. What is more direct is the sales of governance tokens. Against the background of clearing that tokens will not be resold at the secondary level and the existence of market equity, in March this year, WLFI still announced that it had completed the sales of WLFI governance tokens of US$550 million, and OG Sun Yuchen in the currency circle also contributed US$75 million.

The documents show that after deducting operating costs, Trump and his business partners will receive 75% of the project's net revenue, including WLFI token sales. Of the funds raised from WLFI sales, $30 million has been designated to pay for company fees, compensation and obligations. Project documents also show that Trump and his partners at DT Marks DEFI LLC will receive 75% of the remaining amount, or $390 million, as marketing expenses for Trump to promote the project “from time to time” and allow the use of his name and image.

Trump just talked about the future of stablecoins at the first White House crypto summit, and the family business began to take action. On March 25, WLFI announced the launch of a stablecoin called USD1, which is pegged to the US dollar and is supported 100% by U.S. government short-term Treasury bonds, dollar deposits and other cash equivalents. USD1 will be minted on the ETH and BSC blockchains and plans to expand to other protocols in the future, with the USD1 reserves hosted by BitGo. As of now, according to CoinGecko data, USD1's transaction volume has exceeded US$44.91 million.

Next is mining. The president made it clear that he wanted to ensure that the remaining bitcoin was made in the United States, and the Trump family naturally wanted to seize the initiative. At the end of March, Trump's second son Eric Trump and mining company Hut 8 Mining announced the joint establishment of a new Bitcoin mining company American Bitcoin. Hut 8 injects most of the ASIC mining machines into American Data Centers, which was invested by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., and renames it to American Bitcoin after the transaction is completed. Hut 8 holds 80% of the equity.

If mining and stablecoins seem to have just taken shape and cannot make a big profit, the only thing that shocks the world is Trump MEME. In January, Trump's personal MEME Trump launched a precedent for the president to issue coins, successfully making a fortune amidst the abuse. But from the peak of $70 to the current $7.89, from a surge of 125 times to a drop of 90% from a high point, investors have also laid the root cause of further liquidity tightening in the subsequent currency circle.

Due to the unlocking problem, the actual profit is not as huge as imagined. Judging from token distribution, the total supply of TRUMP is 1 billion, but initially circulating was only 200 million, and the remaining 800 million is expected to be unlocked linearly within three years. Two subsidiaries of the Trump Group occupy an absolute share. Trump's companies, CIC Digital LLC and Fight Fight LLC, will own 80% of TRUMP tokens, with a lock-in period of 3-12 months, and will be unlocked in the next 24 months. The current book profit is about US$6.344 billion.

Overall, a huge Trump-encrypted empire is emerging, and its layout is already very wide. After the NFT trial, the mining business is about to take shape, and it also includes profit cash bull stablecoins and Defi. There is even a blood bag provided by MEME. Although it is scattered, the industrial chain has gradually formed, and both infrastructure and applications are involved, and it is expected to continue to extend around the "core application". Bloomberg reported that as of now, the Trump family has attracted more than $1 billion from the cryptocurrency field. From the current perspective, the cryptocurrency market is not in a prosperous cycle and has entered a bull market after gaining a foothold. It is obvious that the Trump family's profits will be extremely considerable.

Just recently, Fortune reported that Trump's latest crypto project will be a real estate video game. People familiar with the matter said that the game is an adaptation of "MONOPOLY GO!", where players earn in-game cash by moving pieces on the digital Monopoly board, build buildings in digital cities, and also revealed that Trump's long-time friend Bill Zanker is the driving force behind the project. But Zanker spokesman Kevin Mercuri denied this, saying that Zanker is indeed developing a game, but is not a Monopoly. It can be seen that the subsequent encryption tentacles of the Trump family are very likely to extend to the chain game field.

It has been mentioned earlier that Trump's business philosophy adheres to the principle of traffic monetization. The currency circle, which has always put traffic first, is obviously very consistent with its business characteristics. With the support of its own controllable policies, Trump can continuously raise the currency market by releasing favorable benefits, or directly use his influence to enter the most profitable and most policy prospects in the field. This is undoubtedly an alternative political corruption and insider trading. Looking at its layout in the encryption field, it was all about the government sending out signals, and the family team quickly followed up, and interest groups were formed. As a classic example, one of the co-founders of WLFI is Zach Witkov, the son of Trump administration’s special envoy for the Middle East.

Not everyone is happy about this, and the doubts from the democratic and non-partisan senior officials have never stopped. Elizabeth Warren, a well-known crypto opponent, said that the SEC's abandonment of law enforcement activities is part of Trump's use of crypto business to get rich, which undoubtedly hinders regulatory legislation. Cadrick Payne, general counsel and senior director of ethics at the nonpartisan campaign law center, also said Trump is personally advocating the law to promote the crypto industry.

This statement is not groundless. After Trump came to power, not only did the SEC completely become a crypto-friend, but the Ministry of Justice also promised to reduce crypto-related lawsuits, and even no longer pursued the control of currency mixers that were previously deeply involved in anti-money laundering, and stakeholders can even let go. Take Justin Sun as an example. In 2023, he was also sued by the SEC for fraudulent market sanctions and other suspected misconducts, but after investing heavily in WFLI last year, the SEC stopped the lawsuit this year.

It seems that the policies controlled by Trump are monolithic, but arbitrary supervision can easily induce political conflicts, especially in the current complex political situation in the United States, where there is a possibility of regulatory backlash. Investment bank TD Cowen said today that the Trump family's crypto business (including planned stablecoins) could trigger a rebound and delay U.S. regulatory process, and political risks are rising despite lawmakers accelerating the crypto regulations.

In fact, conflicts of interest and insider information are not limited to the currency circle. Trump's close friends have successfully made a big profit after the recent tariff storm swept global stock markets. According to congressional disclosure documents, a Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has a close relationship with Trump, successfully made 21 stock buys the day before Trump suspended tariffs. What's even more ridiculous is that on the same day, Trump's personal account's stock holdings soared by 22.67%, making a single-day profit of more than $415 million. In addition to the female congresswoman, Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan, a Pennsylvania, also sold shares of US steel producer Steel Dynamics in advance on the day Trump announced the increase in tariffs on steel and aluminum products. Although both congressmen came forward to clarify that the investment was legal and compliant, it still caused a lot of suspicion in the market.

The family makes money in the currency circle and allies make profits in the stock market. No matter how they clarify, Trump's operations are inevitably suspected of conflicts of interest. At present, the Democratic legislator group has jointly written to the new SEC chairman Paul Atkins, demanding an investigation into whether Trump creates trading opportunities for allies through policy changes and whether it is suspected of market manipulation. But considering that the chairman is his own person pushed by Trump, the Democratic Party’s impeachment may be difficult to succeed.

It can be seen from the naked eye that the Trump family's profit-making pace has not stopped. Less than half a year after taking office, the money he has earned over billions of dollars on his books. After four years of employment, how much money can he make? The evaluation of governing ability has not yet begun, and the most profitable president in the United States seems to have been born.