How crypto, real estate and watches added up for Trump last year

By — Bernard Condon, Associated Press Bernard Condon, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/how-crypto-real-estate-and-watches-added-up-for-trump-last-year Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter How crypto, real estate and watches added up for Trump last year Politics Jul 2, 2026 1:14 PM EDT NEW YORK (AP) — The real estate mogul has become the billion-dollar crypto man. President Donald Trump's latest financial disclosure report showed he took in about $1.2 billion last year from various crypto holdings, overshadowing a real estate business that brought him fame and helped propel him to the nation's top office. WATCH: Trump's $2B income in 2025 raises fresh questions about profiting off presidency Whereas it took decades for Trump to amass his various properties, the rise of crypto in his portfolio was done in just over a year, a stunning development sped along by his own friendly policies toward the industry and help from billionaires and other actors with important business before the presidency. Educate your inbox Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else. Running over 900 pages, the mandatory annual report showed Trump struck several other new veins of wealth last year, raising questions about whether he is profiting from his high office. He took in tens of millions from new property holdings in foreign countries eager to please a man with power over where to deploy the U.S. military and how much to charge in tariffs. And he got tens of million more suing media companies worried they could lose their broadcast licenses or not get deals approved by his regulators. Ever the salesman, Trump even made big money off the smallest of things, pulling in millions by slapping his name on Bibles, guitars and watches — the latter alone bringing in $4.7 million. Hail the new crypto king Trump got more than $500 million from his World Liberty Financial business selling "governance tokens" and "stablecoins" and other crypto assets. Another crypto business, CIC Digital LLC, took in more than $600 million from sales of souvenir-type "meme" coins stamped with his face. Both the tokens and the meme coins have plunged in value since his sales, partly because they are so difficult to value. Governance tokens, for instance, confer to holders only the power to vote on certain management policies at a company, not equity stakes, and so typical valuation measures don't apply. Buyers pounced on Trump crypto anyway, including a Chinese billionaire who spent $75 million on the tokens and $200 million on the souvenir coins. In February 2025, a federal lawsuit charging the billionaire, Justin Sun, with duping investors was paused before being settled for a $10 million fine. READ MORE: Trump took in about $1.2 billion from crypto businesses last year, financial disclosure shows Sun has denied his spending on Trump businesses