Donald Trump Prepares to Unveil a Cryptocurrency Business
Mr. Trump said he would introduce the project on Monday, continuing his embrace of the crypto industry, a major source of political donations.
Former President Donald J. Trump said on Thursday that he was preparing to unveil a new cryptocurrency business, as his presidential campaign aggressively courts the multibillion-dollar crypto industry in the run-up to November’s election.
In a video posted on X, Mr. Trump said he would introduce the crypto platform, World Liberty Financial, in a livestream at 8 p.m. on Monday. “We’re embracing the future with crypto, and leaving the slow and outdated big banks behind,” he said.
The announcement was light on details and did not explain the extent of his connection to the project. Two of his sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., have promoted World Liberty Financial in recent weeks, posting links to a channel on the messaging app Telegram that provides updates on the project.
A post on World Liberty Financial’s Telegram channel on Thursday said Mr. Trump would appear on the livestream from Mar-a-Lago, his country club in Palm Beach, Fla. “Get ready as we unveil our plan to Make Finance Great Again,” the post said.
It’s unusual for presidential candidates to start new businesses in the middle of a campaign, and Mr. Trump’s business interests have raised concerns about conflicts of interest throughout his political career. He also owns a large stake in Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of the conservative social media platform Truth Social. The company’s stock has plunged in recent weeks, reducing the value of his stake by billions of dollars.
World Liberty Financial is Mr. Trump’s latest effort to ingratiate himself with the crypto industry. On the campaign trail, he has vowed to end a crackdown on the industry by the U.S. government, which has pushed for stricter regulations on digital currencies. In July, Mr. Trump spoke at the annual Bitcoin conference in Nashville, one of the largest crypto gatherings of the year, promising to make the United States “the crypto capital of the planet.”
The pitch appears to be working. Several prominent crypto executives, including Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the founders of the Gemini exchange, have donated to Mr. Trump’s election effort. A super PAC funded by the industry, Fairshake, has raised more than $150 million to elect pro-crypto candidates in congressional races, supporting a mix of Democrats and Republicans.
Mr. Trump was not always a crypto booster. In 2021, he said Bitcoin “seems like a scam.” But his views appear to have shifted during the campaign. This year, he hosted an event at Mar-a-Lago for people who bought a line of nonfungible tokens, the crypto collectibles known as NFTs, which he released.
It’s unclear exactly what World Liberty Financial is designed to accomplish. A copy of the project’s white paper, obtained by the crypto news website CoinDesk, said it would provide a borrowing and lending service, with its own crypto token.
Representatives for World Liberty Financial and the Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Trump’s embrace of crypto has made him hugely popular among digital currency investors. But his family’s promotion of World Liberty Financial has drawn a mixed reaction in the crypto world.
“It genuinely damages trump’s electoral prospects, especially if it gets hacked,” the crypto venture investor Nic Carter wrote on X this month. “At best it’s an unnecessary distraction, at worst it’s a huge embarrassment and source of (additional) legal trouble.”
The project has already become a target for hackers and scammers. This month, unauthorized posts appeared on the X accounts of Lara Trump, Mr. Trump’s daughter-in-law, and Tiffany Trump, his younger daughter. The posts directed viewers to a fake version of World Liberty Financial’s website.
“This is a scam!!!” Eric Trump wrote on X. “@LaraLeaTrump and @TiffanyATrump‘s Twitter profiles have been compromised!!”
