President Donald Trump told the public on July 6 that people in the crypto industry should feel fortunate he’s sitting in the Oval Office. The occasion? His administration’s ongoing campaign to drop federal investigations into crypto companies and individuals that had been initiated under the Biden administration.

It’s a remarkable statement from a president whose own financial disclosures reveal over $1.4 billion in crypto-related income in 2025 alone.

The enforcement rollback

The scale of the regulatory retreat is hard to overstate. Within the first month of Trump’s return to office, investigations against at least 89 companies were dismissed. The DOJ’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, which had been the federal government’s primary weapon against crypto fraud, was disbanded entirely.

The SEC followed a similar playbook. Numerous enforcement actions that were active during the Biden era have been paused or dropped outright. Trump has characterized the previous administration’s approach as unfairly targeting “good people” in the space.

The conflict of interest question

Trump’s 2025 financial disclosures paint a vivid picture: approximately $636 million in income attributed to the $TRUMP memecoin, and roughly $800 million from World Liberty Financial.

The $TRUMP memecoin launched in January 2025, right around the time Trump returned to office. The president created a personal cryptocurrency token and then proceeded to reshape the regulatory environment that governs the entire asset class.

Critics have pointed out that some of the dropped investigations involved entities with connections to Trump’s political or business interests. The administration has not directly addressed these specific allegations, instead framing the broader enforcement rollback as pro-innovation policy.

On the other side of those $TRUMP memecoin profits sits a rather ugly number. Retail investors collectively lost an estimated $3.8 billion to $4.5 billion on the token, spread across nearly 1 million wallets. Trump’s ventures pulled in $1.4 billion. Retail holders of his own token lost up to $4.5 billion. And the regulatory apparatus that might have flagged these dynamics was being systematically dismantled at the same time.

A new era for crypto regulation

The Trump administration has been explicit about its goal: positioning the US as the most favorable jurisdiction on Earth for cryptocurrency businesses. The disbanding of the DOJ’s crypto enforcement unit is particularly significant. That team had been responsible for some of the most high-profile fraud cases in the industry’s history.

Leadership changes at the SEC have reinforced this direction. Cases that were months or years in the making have been shelved, sending a clear signal to the industry about the new rules of engagement.

There’s a meaningful difference between recalibrating regulatory policy and a president with over a billion dollars in crypto income telling the industry it should feel lucky he’s in charge.