The Trumps Go Crypto
Author: Greg Valliere
September 16, 2024
IN A RESPITE from the name calling and violence, we’ll get to see former President Donald Trump announce this week, perhaps today, the debut of a new crypto platform called World Liberty Financial that will be controlled by sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.
THE REPUBLICAN NOMINEE for president plans to discuss the new venture from his Mar-a-Lago resort. In recent weeks, the Trumps have been promoting the endeavor on social media, touting it as “the future of crypto.”
TRUMP’S 18-YEAR OLD SON BARRON, a first-year student at New York University, is identified as the project’s “DeFi visionary,” according to a white paper on the project obtained by cryptocurrency news site CoinDesk. DeFi, short for “decentralized finance,” is a term that refers to financial services offered through public blockchains.
“We’re embracing the future with crypto and leaving the slow and outdated big banks behind,” the elder Trump said in a video posted last Thursday.
THE TRUMPS’ CRYPTO PLANS fit with the former president’s campaign pledge to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet,” according to CBS News. But the venture also raises concerns about how Donald Trump might use federal resources to promote a personal financial project.
“Taking a pro-crypto stance is not necessarily troubling; the troubling aspect is doing it while starting a way to personally benefit from it,” Jordan Libowitz, a spokesperson for the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, told the Associated Press.
Libowitz added, “The success of this could be very tied to American economic policy.”
BECAUSE THE TRUMPS have released few details about World Liberty Financial, little is known about how the platform will operate. Crypto exchanges are platforms where investors can buy and sell digital currencies, similar to how a traditional stock exchange operates.
ERIC TRUMP HAS SAID that the startup will promote “financial independence,” while Donald Trump Jr. has said it will “make finance great again.”
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