Former President Donald Trump formally introduced World Liberty Financial, a new cryptocurrency venture, in a livestream on Monday. The project is led by two digital currency entrepreneurs with limited experience in high-profile business management. “Crypto is one of those things we have to do,” Mr.
Join me live from Mar-A-Lago at 8:00PM Eastern, tonight on X Spaces. Set a reminder and be sure to tune in! https://t.co/MXTu3hxVFP
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 16, 2024
Trump said.
Trump is launching a crypto business Monday night — just 50 days before the election. It's not a campaign event. It's a business announcement.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 14, 2024
“Whether we like it or not, I have to do it.” He was accompanied by his collaborators, including a family friend, his two oldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the two little-known crypto entrepreneurs, Chase Herro and Zachary Folkman.
Mr.
To save time, they might as well bankrupt and lay charges against everyone associated with it now. https://t.co/nok0PiX6dA
— Neil McMahon (@NeilMcMahon) September 17, 2024
Trump’s involvement in World Liberty Financial has raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, especially among his supporters in the cryptocurrency industry. Since August, Mr.
Trump has promoted the venture, but its exact purpose remains unclear. No official launch date has been set, and during the livestream, Mr. Trump did not address the project directly, leaving the details to Herro and Folkman.
It is highly unusual for a presidential candidate to embark on a new business venture just weeks before Election Day. Such engagements have often been flagged as problematic by ethics experts, given their potential for conflicts of interest.
Trump’s World Liberty cryptocurrency unveiling
Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group, stated that if Mr. Trump were re-elected, his involvement in the crypto venture would raise serious ethical concerns. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently intensified its scrutiny of the cryptocurrency industry, asserting that nearly all cryptocurrencies are unregistered securities that should be regulated similarly to Wall Street stocks.
World Liberty Financial is Mr. Trump’s latest endeavor in a series of business ventures, including Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of his social media platform, Truth Social. During the launch event for his World Liberty Financial crypto platform, former U.S. President Donald Trump warned that U.S. crypto builders under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) “will be living in hell” if he is not elected for a second term this November.
“If we don’t win the election, those people that were under investigation and that are free as a bird right now,” Trump said, “and people that weren’t being looked at in the crypto world, they will be living in hell—because it will start the day after the election if they win.”
At the event, Trump criticized SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s approach to crypto regulation, calling it “incredibly hostile.” The regulator has targeted several crypto exchanges, including Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken, and issued a legal threat to the NFT marketplace OpenSea. Interestingly, there have been recent surprises in crypto regulation. Despite the initial skepticism, the SEC approved Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in May, which began trading in July.
This occurred after January’s approval of Bitcoin ETFs. There was speculation that Trump’s public support for cryptocurrency and his promises to introduce friendlier regulations may have influenced the Biden administration to ease off on crypto enforcement. Trump believes this could be true, stating, “Frankly, since they heard I was involved, they’ve treated people much better.
Maybe they view it as votes.”
Despite this apparent shift in tone, Trump’s Democratic rival in the election, Kamala Harris, has not provided any specifics about her approach to crypto regulation. The crypto community remains keenly interested in the upcoming election and its potential impact on the industry.
