Cash News
Topline
Former President Donald Trump is set to unveil a new cryptocurrency platform Monday run by his sons—as the ex-president has warmed to the industry since launching his latest campaign for president, despite previously disavowing crypto during his time in office.
Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign … [+]
Key Facts
Trump is expected to formally debut the platform, dubbed World Liberty Financial, in a discussion on X Spaces later Monday, a launch he’s been promoting for weeks, including in a video posted to his X account last week, where he said “we’re embracing the future with crypto and leaving the slow and outdated big banks behind.”
The platform will presumably operate similar to others such as Coinbase, Gemini and Binance, charging users fees to trade cryptocurrencies, and it could eventually incorporate its own token, referred to as WLFI, Coindesk reported, citing an anonymous source familiar with the company’s plans.
World Liberty Financial, which will be run by Trump’s sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, is the latest crypto-centric move that represents a reversal for Trump since his time in office—when he trashed crypto as “highly volatile and based on thin air,” he tweeted in 2019.
In 2021, Trump told Fox Business bitcoin seems like a “scam,” and called crypto a “disaster waiting to happen” that “takes the edge off of the dollar and the importance of the dollar,” arguing that the U.S. should “regulate [crypto] very, very high.”
Trump—and the Republican Party as a whole—have warmed to crypto, apparently seeing an opening to court donors and bash Democrats as the industry has been angered by a Securities and Exchange Commission crackdown on bad actors and attempts at regulations under President Joe Biden, what Trump has described as a “war on crypto.”
Trump has pledged to fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler if he’s re-elected, began taking campaign donations in crypto in May, chose longtime crypto ally Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, as his running mate and announced his support for bitcoin mining, as miners have battled with the Biden administration over the electricity consumption required to process transactions.
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What To Watch For
Trump is set to discuss World Liberty Financial on X Spaces Monday at 8 p.m. EDT.
Key Background
Few details have been made public about World Liberty Financial. Eric Trump has said the platform will promote “financial independence.” Trump’s youngest son, Barron Trump, will be the project’s “DeFi [decentralized finance]
visionary,” according to a white paper obtained by CoinDesk. The company promised in a series of tweets earlier this month describing its objectives to drive “the mass adoption of stablecoins,” a type of digital currency that aims to have a 1:1 exchange rate with government-issued currencies, including the dollar. Seventy percent of the company’s tokens will go to founders, team and service providers and the remaining 30% will be distributed via public sale, CoinDesk reported, noting the 70% reserved for insiders is uncharacteristically high compared to other platforms. The platform was initially dubbed “The DeFiant Ones” when Trump announced it on Truth Social in August, writing “for too long, the average American has been squeezed by the big banks and financial elites,” he wrote, adding “it’s time we take a stand—together.”
Further Reading
Trump Campaign Now Accepts Crypto Donations (Forbes)
Are Trump And Vance Good For Bitcoin? Here’s Why The Market Thinks So—Even Though Trump’s Called It A ‘Scam.’ (Forbes)
Trump Selling More NFT Trading Cards—As He Courts Crypto Voters (Forbes)