Trump Pleads Crypto Ignorance, Insists Knowing the $1.4B Wouldn't Be "Illegal" Either 🪙

President Donald Trump said he was unaware of the income generated by his crypto ventures last year, telling CNBC he "did not know about the crypto earnings" even though he could look into them if he chose. The remarks come in the wake of his 2025 financial disclosure, which showed at least $1.4 billion in crypto-related income, largely from licensing deals tied to the TRUMP meme coin and WLFI token sales.

Pressed on potential ethics concerns arising from his family's involvement in the digital asset industry while serving as president, Trump added that there was "nothing illegal about knowing," reiterating that he had not personally tracked the figures. The disclosure, released earlier this week, represents one of the largest publicly reported crypto earnings totals tied to a sitting U.S. president and has intensified debate over conflict-of-interest boundaries in office.

When the disclosure was first published, Trump attributed his broader market profits to the ongoing stock market rally, as previously reported by CoinGape, though he did not address the crypto line items at the time. His latest comments mark his first direct acknowledgment of the crypto earnings since the document became public. The president's financial disclosure form is required annually for federal officeholders and lists categories of income and assets without specifying precise dollar amounts in every line.

Ethics specialists have pointed to the intersection of presidential duties and family-held crypto projects as an area lacking clear guardrails, particularly given the global regulatory weight of U.S. policy on digital assets. Trump has previously defended his family's business dealings, arguing they are properly managed and do not influence his official actions. The White House has not issued a separate statement responding to the latest ethics questions raised by the disclosure.

The TRUMP meme coin and WLFI token remain active projects, with the disclosure indicating licensing and sales arrangements that produced the bulk of the reported crypto revenue during the covered period. Market observers continue to scrutinize publicly available wallet data and on-chain transactions associated with the projects, though the disclosure itself does not detail specific wallet holdings.