President Donald Trump likes Monopoly. In 1989, the real estate mogul released Trump: The Game, a twist on the real-estate-themed board game. And in 2006, he explored launching a Monopoly-inspired reality TV show. “I’ve always thought Monopoly was an amazing game,” Trump told the New York Post in an interview about the program, which never got off the ground. Now, Trump’s latest venture will be a Trump-branded crypto game—one that has a Monopoly-like feel, according to two sources familiar with the project.
The planned real estate game would be the newest addition to a growing list of crypto ventures from Trump and his family. In addition to NFT collections and a memecoin, there’s decentralized finance venture World Liberty Financial, a stablecoin, and a Bitcoin mining firm in which the President’s sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have a large stake.
One source familiar with the new Trump crypto game told Fortune it was a twist on Monopoly Go!, where players earn in-game cash through moving pieces around a digital Monopoly board to erect buildings in a digital city. A second, unconnected source familiar with the game also compared the project to Monopoly. Both individuals asked for anonymity to talk about private business dealings.
The sources said Bill Zanker, a longtime pal of Trump who helped the President launch his memecoin and NFTs, is behind the venture.
Kevin Mercuri, a spokesperson for Zanker, denied that the project was similar to Monopoly Go! but confirmed to Fortune that Zanker is working on a “game” that he plans to launch in late April. He also said that the Monopoly reference is “hearsay.”
A spokesperson for Hasbro, the company behind the original Monopoly board game, said it hadn’t licensed its intellectual property to a Trump-affiliated organization for a crypto venture.
Originally, Zanker had planned to launch the project before the 47th president’s inauguration, according to one source. In May 2024, Zanker reached out to Hasbro to buy back the license for Trump: The Game, the Trump-branded version of Monopoly, according to another source familiar with the discussions. However, the company told Zanker it no longer had the rights to the more than 30-year-old game.
Mercuri didn’t respond to a request for comment about the game’s development timeline.
Trump racks up crypto trademarks
That Zanker is developing a crypto game isn’t a total surprise. For years, the crypto industry has tried to integrate blockchains with video games. Perhaps the most famous example is Axie Infinity, which turned playable characters into NFTs and granted users cryptocurrency for playing.
In late February, DTTM Operations, the entity managing Trump’s trademarks, filed to apply Trump’s name to a host of other crypto products, including virtual clothing-related NFTs and an online retail store for virtual goods. Mercuri didn’t respond to a question asking whether the trademark filings were related to Trump’s newest crypto project and didn’t say how blockchain technology would be involved.
The steady launch of Trump crypto ventures has raised a host of conflict-of-interest claims. While his sons and the Trump Organization dive deeper into crypto, Trump has signaled a shift in U.S. policy toward the industry. He’s hired an AI and crypto czar, authorized the launch of a strategic Bitcoin and digital assets reserve, and pushed for crypto legislation.
In a separate interview with Fortune about his Bitcoin mining project, the President’s son Eric Trump disputed allegations of conflict of interest. “This is something that our family believes,” he said of crypto. “It’s something our family speaks about with our heart and soul.”
Bill Zanker, Trump’s partner in the crypto video game, has a colorful past. In the 1980s, Zanker, who is now 70, took $5,000 in bar mitzvah money and launched the Learning Annex, a quirky educational venture that offered classes to adults on “How to Cheat on Your Spouse,” “Hot Air Ballooning,” and “Firewalking,” among other topics. In 2001, he invited Trump to host a talk in the Learning Annex, and the pair eventually coauthored a book about “how to achieve success.”
Zanker and Trump stopped doing business together as Trump campaigned in 2015 to secure his first term in the White House, but seven years later, Zanker approached Trump about launching NFT collections with the real estate mogul’s likeness, according to multiple reports. Trump agreed, and Zanker and his team released a series of NFTs that depicted the then former president as a superhero, an astronaut, and a cowboy.
Zanker is one of the key personas behind Trump’s memecoin, according to three sources familiar with the project. He is also listed on the certificate of formation for FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT LLC, an entity associated with the cryptocurrency, according to a document Fortune obtained.
He declined multiple requests for an interview.
Are you a crypto industry insider with thoughts on Trump’s ventures or a tip to share? Contact Ben Weiss at [email protected] or through secure messaging app Signal @bdanweiss.123.
