The Trump Organization is taking a new route with its next big project: a luxury resort in the Maldives that anyone can invest in through tokenized shares.
Donald Jr. and Eric Trump have been steering the family’s real estate ventures toward crypto and blockchain, and this latest move folds that shift directly into a major development. The company has announced plans for Trump International Hotel Maldives, its first resort in the island nation, created in partnership with Saudi developer Dar Global.
The $300 million project is expected to open by the end of 2028. What makes it unusual is not the scale or the location, but the way it will be funded. Instead of waiting until the resort is built, the developers will tokenize the development stage itself. That means investors will be able to buy digital tokens that represent shares in a fund supporting the construction of the property.
Dar Global CEO Ziad El Chaar explained to Bloomberg that these tokens will act like fractional stakes in the project’s financing. Dar Global will keep a 30 to 40 percent share of the venture, while the rest will be open to investors worldwide.
This is an interesting shift for the Trump Organization, which typically relies on branding and management fees rather than funding development directly. Tokenization offers a way to widen the pool of investors and tap into growing interest in blockchain-based financial platforms.
As more private credit and investment firms experiment with blockchain—such as Figure and Maple Finance—the model is starting to move into mainstream real estate. If it works, developments like the Maldives resort could mark the next phase of real-estate investment, where large projects open their doors to everyday investors, not just big institutional players.
