President Donald Trump is set to roll out a crypto game that lets players build virtual properties and earn in-game currency, Fortune reported Tuesday, and yes, it’s inspired by Monopoly, the iconic board game. Sources with knowledge of the plan said that Bill Zanker, Trump’s longtime buddy who helped launch his NFT collections and the Official Trump meme coin, is developing it.
According to two sources who spoke to Fortune, the upcoming game gives a vibe of Monopoly with a play-to-earn mechanism. Kevin Mercuri, Zanker’s spokesperson, denied these Monopoly talks, though he said there’s a game dropping this month. Hasbro, which owns Monopoly, confirmed it has not licensed its intellectual property to any Trump-affiliated organization for a crypto venture. The board game company acquired the rights to Monopoly through its purchase of Parker Brothers.
In May 2024, Zanker attempted to acquire the license for “Trump: The Game,” a Trump-branded version of Monopoly from 1989, but was informed the rights were no longer available, according to the report. President Trump has long had a fondness for Monopoly. In a past interview, his mother, Mary Trump, recalled that Monopoly was one of his favorite childhood games, alongside block building.
That connection to Monopoly eventually influenced his own venture. In 1989, Trump released Trump: The Game. The board game is directly modeled after Monopoly and inspired by his career and best-selling book The Art of the Deal. The leaked information came after the Trump Organization filed a trademark application with the US Patent and Trademark Office for a digital ecosystem in the metaverse and NFT space in late February.
The ecosystem includes virtual TRUMP-branded apparel and TRUMP-themed restaurant simulations, alongside NFT-verified exclusive content. The filing is part of broader efforts to establish a presence in digital assets and expand their crypto initiatives, signaling potential future deployment of these virtual services.
The game, once confirmed, would add to Trump’s growing crypto portfolio, which includes NFT collections and the meme coin launch. Trump’s family has also dipped their toes into other areas of the crypto industry, from World Liberty Financial, the DeFi venture, to American Bitcoin, the mining initiative. World Liberty Financial will soon launch a stablecoin and later venture into the real-world asset sector.
