https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/16/trump-crypto-world-liberty-financial.html
- For over a month, Republican former President Donald Trump and his family have been pumping up a secretive family crypto project, promising that it will do many things at once.
- World Liberty Financial is expected to operate as a crypto banking platform, with 70% of the equity to be held by a small group of Trump family members and insiders, according to a person familiar with the project.
- The parallels between this endeavor and Trump’s other venture, Trump Media Technology Group, were unavoidable.
" Around sixteen minutes into Republican former President Donald Trump’s “state of crypto” address on X, cryptocurrencies got their first mention. More than an hour in, few of the promised details had been provided about the family’s secretive new crypto project. "
"The GOP presidential nominee began the conversation around crypto by talking about how much his three sons know about the industry and how “they’ve shown great judgment.”
“Barron knows so much about this,” Trump said of his youngest son. “He talks about his wallet. He’s got four wallets or something, but he knows this stuff.”
From there, Trump covered familiar ground, talking about the perceived hostility of the Securities and Exchange Commission towards the digital currency industry. Several high profile figures in the industry take issue with SEC Chair Gary Gensler, claiming that he is regulating the industry through enforcement actions, rather than with rules.
Over the course of Trump’s 40-minute fireside chat, he talked about how he “wasn’t overly interested” in crypto initially. But that changed, he said, when sales of his Trump trademarked nonfungible token collections were paid for with crypto. “I think my children opened my eyes more than anything else.”
CNBC sent detailed questions to a World Liberty Financial press email address on Monday. A short time later, CNBC received an email reply sent from an anonymous gmail account, which did not answer CNBC’s questions or list a name for the sender."
"On Sunday afternoon at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump and his longtime friend and political donor, Steve Witkoff, were between the fifth and sixth holes on the course when gunshots were fired. The FBI has characterized the incident as an apparent assassination attempt on the former president.
Witkoff is a longtime friend of Trump’s. He’s also part of the small group of World Liberty Financial founders, according to an internal report on the project obtained by CoinDesk.
Witkoff was seated to Trump’s right during Monday night’s spaces, and described how he brought the Trump family together two crypto entrepreneurs.
“My son introduced me to two partners, Chase Herro and Zak Folkman, who are exceptionally bright people ...These guys are as smart as any currency traders I’ve ever met. And they began talking to me about decentralized finance, which means frictionless finance, and why it made sense for people and about the forgotten, who can’t get credit out there,” he said.
“As I began to understand that, I said, ‘Who would understand this better than this than the Trump family?’ And we had a meeting initially with Eric, Don Jr, and the president and his counsel. And we said, Let’s go pursue it. We’ve been on it for close to nine months,” said Witkoff.
Along with Trump, Witkoff is one of at least a half dozen members of the project’s “leadership team.” This means he will also reportedly share in the 70% stake in the crypto bank that will be issued to its founding members at the launch.
Seventy percent is an unusually large equity share for the founders of a crypto platform to retain, according to several industry experts including crypto-specific venture capitalists. The typical founders stake is closer to 20%.
As Witkoff spoke, the parallels with Trump’s other venture, Trump Media Technology Group, were unavoidable.
In that case, two former cast members on Trump’s NBC hit “The Apprentice” approached Trump in 2021 with an idea for a new, conservative social network. Three years later, TMTG’s stock has boosted Trump’s net worth by billions of dollars, and Truth Social is his platform of choice.
Alongside Trump and Witkoff, founders include Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Barron Trump, as well as Witkoff’s son, Zach Witkoff, according to a person briefed by a member of the group’s founding team.
A copy of the internal report, known as a white paper and obtained by CoinDesk, lists Barron as “Chief DeFi Visionary,” Eric and Donald Jr. as “Web3 Ambassadors,” and Trump Sr. as “Chief Crypto Advocate.”
But while the Trumps will receive compensation from the project, Bloomberg reports that the platform itself is “not owned, managed, operated or sold” by members of the Trump family."
"Anyone who wants material details of the platform, including the white paper, is being asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement, according to a person familiar with the project
Some visible members of the industry newly cozied up to Trump in 2024, lending their cash and endorsement to the Republican presidential nominee, as he adopted increasingly bullish talking points on the campaign trail, which culminated in the GOP pick delivering a keynote address at the biggest bitcoin event of the year in Nashville in July.
Some of those supporters however, say they are concerned that this foray into crypto may jeopardize Trump’s rapport with the sector more broadly if the launch doesn’t go as planned.
A person familiar with the project says that Donald Trump, Sr. isn’t that involved in the platform thus far."
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