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Steve Witkoff wore two hats in 2025. One belonged to the Trump administration’s special envoy for peace, a role that had him shuttling between capitals in the Middle East and beyond. The other belonged to a man with a very significant stake in a crypto company co-founded with the Trump family. According to a financial disclosure submitted to the US Office of Government Ethics, those two hats came with a combined $107 million paycheck.
That figure, reported for the 2025 calendar year, represents a sharp jump from the $34 million Witkoff disclosed the prior year.
What World Liberty Financial actually is
World Liberty Financial was co-founded in 2024 by members of both the Trump and Witkoff families. The company operates in the digital asset space, issuing tokens including a governance token and a stablecoin called USD1. Zach Witkoff, Steve’s son, serves as CEO.
Earlier WLFI token sales reportedly yielded around $130 million for the Witkoff family’s associated entities. A Trump-linked entity holds an entitlement to 75% of net proceeds from certain token sales. Additional proceeds flowed from a partial stake sale to entities connected to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the UAE. The timing of that transaction is worth noting: it occurred while Steve Witkoff was actively engaged in diplomatic efforts across the Middle East.
Steve Witkoff’s $107 million figure flows through a holding company that consolidates income from multiple sources. The disclosure does not break down how much of that total came specifically from World Liberty Financial versus other business interests.
The conflict-of-interest problem
In Washington, financial disclosures exist to surface exactly this kind of situation: a senior official with significant diplomatic authority also holding material financial interests in industries or entities touched by that authority. For most senior officials, the answer is divestment or a blind trust. For Witkoff, past disclosures have flagged ongoing divestment discussions, but those conversations have not yet resolved into clean separation.
In 2026, scrutiny of crypto-related holdings among Trump administration officials has escalated considerably. World Liberty Financial sits at the center of that scrutiny precisely because it fuses family wealth, political brand, and digital asset issuance into a single corporate structure.
What this means for crypto’s political economy
The USD1 stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial is one specific area to watch. Stablecoins are currently among the most actively debated instruments in US crypto regulation, with congressional proposals circulating that would create a federal licensing framework.
The profit-sharing agreements embedded in World Liberty Financial’s structure, where revenue flows through family-linked entities according to defined percentages, also create a kind of permanent financial entanglement. Even as divestment discussions proceed, the contractual architecture of the company means that past and future token sale proceeds continue to flow through arrangements that predate any divestment commitment.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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