Keeping up with Donald Trump isn’t easy.
One minute, he’s insisting that Haitian immigrants are “eating the dogs” and “eating the cats” in the small Ohio town of Springfield.
And the next, the former president is announcing that he’s launching a new crypto business along with his sons.
This isn’t Trump’s first foray into digital assets — after all, he’s launched a flurry of NFTs in the past that depict him as a superhero and a cowboy.
His campaign has also long accepted crypto donations, with the Republican wooing investors by popping up at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville.
There’s little detail surrounding what World Liberty Financial actually intends to do, beyond a mission of “driving the mass adoption of stablecoins and finance.”
But it seems like the startup wants to make digital assets easier to use for everyday consumers — and launch a native token.
In interviews, Trump has claimed that his sons have helped to educate him on how crypto works, with 18-year-old Barron owning four wallets.
Over on X, World Liberty Financial says it’s been driven by a desire to tackle the creeping threat of de-dollarization, as countries around the world establish their own CBDCs.
“We want U.S.-pegged stablecoins to remain the world’s settlement layer for the next 100 years. The U.S. dollar has been the backbone of global finance for decades, but it’s now under attack by foreign nation-states,” the company wrote on X.
And in a direct message to skeptics, the company declared that “the brightest minds in crypto are backing us, and what’s coming will make all doubters think twice.”
What’s Driving Trump’s Crypto Crusade?
In typical form, a two-hour Spaces event hosted by World Liberty Financial from Mar-a-Lago — and featuring Trump — featured plenty of rambling and off-topic conversations.
“We’re gonna make our country greater than ever before and you’re gonna be happy and you’re gonna love your crypto, and as long as you’ve got crypto you’re happy,” he told “proud crypto bro” Farokh Sarmad.
There’s a lot to unpack with this new business. For one, things could get particularly messy if Trump ends up winning back the keys to the Oval Office in November.
There would undoubtedly be swirling questions around potential conflicts of interest — especially considering that the Republican nominee has promised to unveil a slew of pro-crypto policies. Proposals include establishing a Bitcoin reserve, and embarking on a concerted push to ensure all remaining BTC is mined on U.S. soil.
And if World Liberty Financial starts launching its own tokens, that could attract unwelcome attention from regulators.
Zooming out though, and it’s worth reflecting on why Trump is throwing his weight behind this business — and what it may mean for the wider industry.
For one, there’s no denying that the 78-year-old has substantial money troubles that stem from a flurry of legal cases — and he’s in need of cash.
While he owns more than 50% of the shares in Trump Media, the vehicle which owns his social network Truth Social, their value has halved in the past six months. A lock-up period preventing him from selling this stock ends next week. He’s insisted that he won’t do so — and it’s highly likely that its valuation would plummet further if he did.
Trump may be hoping that dabbling in crypto will secure him a quick payday, with his name recognition and pro-Bitcoin stance attracting an influx of customers. Stablecoins have proven to be pretty lucrative for the likes of Tether, with high interest rates generating a net profit of $5.2 billion in the first half of 2024 alone.
What’s especially weird about this new venture is how little Trump actually seems to understand about the crypto space. That helps explain why day-to-day running of the operation will be led by his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr.
It’s hard to scrutinize what World Liberty Financial will offer the crypto market, as no concrete information about its products and services has been made public yet. Realistically, it’s unlikely to provide anything that isn’t already provided by industry giants such as Coinbase and Binance. As YouHodler’s chief of markets Ruslan Lienkha told Cryptonews:
“It is difficult to assess the significance of Trump’s crypto project at this stage, as many details still need to be clarified and adjusted. I do not see any meaningful advantages compared to similar projects in the crypto space. Furthermore, the WLFI token appears more like a traditional financial instrument than a native crypto asset, given that it will be registered with the SEC and available only to accredited investors as an unregistered security. As such, I don’t anticipate the project significantly impacting the broader crypto industry.”
But it will be interesting to see how crypto executives react to this news. The likes of Kraken’s Jesse Powell and the Gemini-owning Winklevoss twins have all been big donors to Trump during the current election cycle. Will they welcome his foray into the sector, or start to see him as a rival?
The U.S. election is now 47 days away — and there’s little doubt that the result will have huge ramifications on how Bitcoin and other digital assets perform. The arrival of World Liberty Financial adds another dimension, and shows Trump’s pro-crypto rhetoric is ramping up rather than dialing down.
The post Trump’s New Crypto Project Leaves More Questions Than Answers appeared first on Cryptonews.
