The New York Times: Trump family's cryptocurrency scam is worse than Watergate

Editor's Note: Never before in American political history has a president interwoven state power, personal branding, and financial speculation into a global experiment like Trump.

The marriage of money and power is not new, but when this union takes the form of "tokens," when the image of a head of state is minted as a tradable asset, and when political influence can flow freely on a blockchain, what we are facing is no longer corruption in the traditional sense, but a systemic restructuring.

This article documents not a single scandal but a paradigm shift: the president is no longer just a politician, but the largest holder of currency in the decentralized economy; diplomatic relations are no longer established through secret talks, but linked by wallet addresses. Technology, once seen as a guarantor of transparency and fairness, now threatens to become the new power broker.

As cryptocurrency enters the White House, and as the digital shadow of the dollar becomes entangled with national will, we must reconsider the question: In this era of "on-chain sovereignty," do the boundaries of power still exist?

The following is the original text.

The New Wallet of Power: How Cryptocurrency Entered the White House

If you were an authoritarian leader trying to influence another head of state, you might gift him a luxurious Boeing 747; you might spend lavishly at his hotels or invest in the numerous businesses he and his children own; you might even buy his sneakers, NFTs, and other branded merchandise.

In the case of President Trump, potential "power brokers" have a richer menu of options. But now, all of this seems unnecessary. During his campaign, Trump announced his own cryptocurrency initiative, World Liberty Financial, and launched his eponymous "memecoin" just days before his inauguration. Anyone who purchased World Liberty tokens could indirectly funnel funds into the Trump family business. Through crypto projects controlled by the president, his son, and family friends, the Trump family has amassed billions of dollars in paper wealth. World Liberty has become a powerful conduit for influence: anyone—you, me, or an Emirati prince—can enrich Trump simply by purchasing the company's tokens. The key lies in this "convenience." For influence seekers, suitcases filled with cash and Swiss bank accounts have been replaced by crypto tokens that can be quickly transferred between wallets and exchanges. More sophisticated crypto users—state actors, hacker groups, and money laundering syndicates—can also obscure their transaction trails through tools like "mixers." It's this convenience that makes cryptocurrency the tool of choice for criminal organizations and sanctions evaders. The Illusion of Transparency: When Corruption Perpetrates in the Name of "Decentralization" This is unprecedented in American political history. Looking back at scandals throughout administration—the corrupt staff around President Grant, the oil lease bribes of the "Teapot Dove Scandal" during the Harding administration, and even Nixon's Watergate scandal—none has ever seen the conflation of personal and government interests on such a scale as Trump's, nor has anyone reaped such enormous personal profits from it. There's nothing truly innovative here. What's truly "novel" is that the sitting president is blatantly leveraging his name, image, and social media influence to promote crypto tokens that are virtually indistinguishable from thousands of other products on the market. To MAGA supporters and ordinary speculators, buying these tokens could mean "losing everything." And for a president to lead a political supporter in such a risky investment is inherently reprehensible. But the greater risk is that powerful foreign powers could use this to funnel vast sums of money to Trump. For any head of state, buying Trump's tokens or investing in his crypto projects becomes a straightforward act of political speculation. This is precisely the perverse incentive created by Trump's "crypto donation box." Take, for example, two recent multibillion-dollar transactions between Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, one of the most influential figures in the UAE, and Steve Witkoff, Trump's Middle East envoy. In the first, a state-owned investment fund led by Tahnoon pledged $2 billion worth of USD1 stablecoins (issued by World Liberty Financial) to invest in Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange. (Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a stable value and serve as a "digital dollar" alternative.) Notably, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao is seeking a pardon from Trump after pleading guilty to money laundering. In the second transaction, Vitkov and venture capitalist David Sacks, Trump's appointed "AI and Cryptocurrency Chief," brokered an agreement allowing the UAE to purchase hundreds of thousands of high-end AI chips for data center construction. These chips are highly sought-after in the global AI race and are subject to strict export controls. Experts worry that the chips may be resold or shared with Chinese companies by the UAE. While there is no definitive evidence of a clear exchange of benefits in these two transactions, the participants and networks of interests overlap significantly, and the blending of public and private sectors has become a hallmark of the Trump administration. Tahnoun's use of $2 billion worth of the USD1 stablecoin is intriguing in itself. If his sole purpose was to invest in Binance, he could have simply wired the funds directly. Choosing World Liberty Financial's USD1 stablecoin as an intermediary effectively creates a "blood-making" fund for a company that directly benefits both Vitkov and Trump. Despite the scandal, Trump's crypto activities have largely been conducted in a relatively public setting. Some notorious crypto figures have even boasted on social media about purchasing tens of millions of dollars in WLFI tokens. The most active among them is Chinese crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, who frequently displays his large holdings of World Liberty and Trump meme coins on social media, positioning himself as a key supporter of Trump's crypto empire. In February of this year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requested a federal judge to halt the civil fraud lawsuit against Sun, a request that was granted by the court. In May, Justin Sun, one of the top holders of Trump's memecoin, was invited to a dinner at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia, where he received a gold watch from the president. In the past (a few years ago), such a clear conflict of interest involving the president would have prompted congressional hearings and law enforcement investigations. But the Supreme Court's recent ruling on presidential immunity has rendered these oversight measures virtually useless. The Department of Justice will not prosecute a sitting president. And at the start of his new term, Trump fired 18 inspectors general—key figures who could have uncovered and investigated government crypto activities. In February, he also ordered the Justice Department to suspend enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (which prohibits bribery of foreign officials) until four months later.

At the same time, regulators have withdrawn their focus from the cryptocurrency sector, and the Trump administration has helped advance a legislative agenda favored by the crypto industry.

The crypto wealth accumulated by Trump and his descendants appears to be continuing to expand during his term.

There is currently no "ceiling" to prevent the continued influx of foreign capital. This door has opened the way to a kind of corruption at the highest level that the United States has never seen. And we must face the dark possibilities it brings.