Former President Donald Trump has addressed recent reports claiming he earned nearly 1.4 billion USD from cryptocurrency ventures during his presidency, stating that he did not personally verify the earnings and asserting that no illegal activities took place.
According to international media reports on Thursday, Trump responded to questions about the alleged 1.4 billion USD in cryptocurrency earnings during a White House interview, saying that he might have been aware of it, but he didn’t verify the figures himself.
Addressing concerns about potential conflicts of interest, Trump declared that he did nothing wrong. He added that what he did was create an industry. The U.S. has become a leader in the cryptocurrency sector, and if it hadn’t taken the initiative, China would have.
Previously, Trump’s financial disclosure documents revealed that he reported over 1.4 billion USD in earnings from cryptocurrency-related ventures last year. The primary sources of revenue included licensing agreement royalties from CIC Digital, token sales and equity divestments from World Liberty Financial (WLFI) – a company founded by the Trump family – and operations related to the dollar-pegged stablecoin USD1.
Despite the reported business success, some cryptocurrencies associated with Trump have experienced a decline in value. The meme coin Official Trump (TRUMP) plummeted from 74 USD in January of last year to approximately 1.72 USD by July this year. Similarly, the WLFI token dropped from 0.45 USD in August last year to 0.05 USD at the end of June. In contrast, the circulation of the dollar-pegged stablecoin USD1 has expanded significantly, reaching about 4.5 billion USD.