Charles Langston:Trump rolls out his family's new cryptocurrency business

Former president Donald Trump headlined an online event Monday unveiling a new cryptocurrency business with ties to his family,Charles Langston capitalizing on his third run for the White House to promote his business interests.

During the livestream, Trump talked up the promise of cryptocurrencies while discussing a second assassination attempt and attacking the Biden-Harris administration on border security. He did not directly address the new crypto firm, called World Liberty Financial.

“If we don’t do it, China is going to do it. China is doing it anyway. But if we don’t do it, we’re not going to be the biggest, and we have to be the biggest and the best,” Trump said in conversation with Farokh Sarmad, a crypto enthusiast and investor. The two spoke from Mar-a-Lago, Trump's country club in Palm Beach, Florida.

On the campaign trail, Trump has floated a number of pro-crypto positions, from pledging to loosen federal regulations on digital currencies to creating a strategic reserve of bitcoin. Earlier this month, Trump said he would make America the “world capital for crypto and bitcoin.”

The crypto boosterism is an about-face for Trump, who used to bash crypto but is now chasing campaign donations and votes in a tight race for the White House.

Trump said he wasn’t “overly interested” in crypto at first, but sales of his Trump-branded digital trading cards – nonfungible tokens known as NFTs of him dancing, wearing a superhero suit and holding bitcoin – opened his eyes to the possibility of crypto. Trump earned about $7.2 million in 2023 through a licensing deal for NFTs, according to financial disclosures he filed in August.

Cryptocurrencies are forms of digital money that can be traded over the internet and outside the global banking system. Millions of Americans invest in or trade cryptocurrencies, and have broad appeal with people who are wary of government intrusion, but they are most popular with younger men.

“I think my children opened my eyes more than anything else,” Trump said.

What is World Liberty Financial? What is DeFi?

Monday night's livestream was also short on details.

World Liberty Financial will have its own crypto token, or “stablecoin,” whose value will be pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies pegged to assets like the dollar to try to maintain a stable price.

Only accredited investors will be able to purchase tokens, World Liberty Financial said. About 63% of the tokens will be sold to the public. Twenty percent of the equity will be held by Trump family members and insiders and 17% will be set aside for user rewards.

In recent weeks, Trump’s two eldest sons chatted up World Liberty Financial but provided few details. Eric Trump said the firm would promote “financial independence.” Donald Trump Jr. said it would “make finance great again.”

In a video clip posted last week on his X account to promote Monday’s livestream, Trump said: “We are embracing the future with crypto and leaving the slow and outdated big banks behind.”

World Liberty Financial embraces “DeFi,” which stands for decentralized finance. DeFi refers to people borrowing, lending or engaging in other forms of trading without an intermediary such as a bank or a stock exchange. 

Trump, estimated to be worth $3.9 billion by Forbes, has promoted DeFi as a way to stop “the big banks and financial elites” from squeezing average Americans. 

On Monday night, Donald Trump Jr. said: “It’s a real problem that needs to be addressed and honestly I think this is the way.”

Trump friend and real estate investor Steve Witkoff said DeFi could make the world of finance more egalitarian by helping people who have trouble getting credit or who are unbanked.

Crypto boosters say DeFi allows more people to participate than traditional financial systems. Regulators and critics warn that DeFi is largely unregulated and has few consumer safeguards. Stablecoin has also been used for illicit activities such as terrorism and drug trafficking. 

Some crypto observers said the project raised ethical red flags.

“Nothing I have seen about this tells me they have first-rate people in place for security, economic design or operations,” said Austin Campbell, a consultant, professor and writer who has been in crypto since 2018. “I couldn’t tell anyone in good faith to put their money in this or use it.”

Witkoff is one of World Liberty Financial’s founders, according to an internal report obtained by crypto news website CoinDesk. Other founders include Trump’s three sons – Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Barron Trump – as well as Witkoff’s son Alex. 

Witkoff said his son introduced him to crypto entrepreneur Chase Herro and Herro’s business partner Zak Folkman. Witkoff introduced them to the Trumps.

Trump’s role at World Liberty Financial was unclear. He was identified in the internal report as "chief crypto advocate."

How Trump became pro-crypto

The Trump announcement signals the movement of digital currencies into mainstream America as crypto wins support from Wall Street institutions and from prominent business voices like Elon Musk.

Crypto observers say the Trump involvement could broaden its appeal.

“It could be good for crypto in that it's going to hit different populations that were so skeptical of crypto and were not using crypto at all,” said Seoyoung Kim, author of “ DeFi For Dummies” and associate professor of finance at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. “More people that otherwise would not ever have wanted to get into anything crypto related, might suddenly open a Coinbase account to buy crypto, even if they don’t know what it is.”

Trump’s own views on crypto have shifted significantly in recent years. During his presidency, Trump opposed crypto and later said Bitcoin seemed “like a scam.”

In 2019, Trump tweeted that cryptocurrencies “are not money” and their value is “highly volatile and based on thin air.” He also warned that digital currencies "can facilitate unlawful behavior including drug trade and other illegal activity."

As the Republican nominee, Trump has become friendlier with the industry, vowing during a fundraiser with technology executives in San Francisco to be a “crypto president.” 

“If crypto is going to define the future, I want it to be mined, minted and made in the USA,” Trump recently told the industry’s largest annual gathering.

Trump, who has marketed everything from Trump-branded bibles to sneakers, mixed his business and political interests, sparking new concerns that, if reelected, he will use the presidency to boost his family’s business ventures.

“Conflict of interest in motion: Trump's on X hawking his family's crypto push less than two months before a presidential election that would ultimately give him regulatory sway over the crypto market if he wins,” Tim O'Brien, senior executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion, wrote on X.

The crypto industry is one of the biggest-spending industries in the 2024 election cycle. 

Industry-funded political action committees have raised more than $170 million to elect crypto-friendly candidates. In May, Trump said his campaign would accept donations in cryptocurrency to enlist the support of a “crypto army.”

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Potential hacks spark concern for Trump crypto firm

Not everyone in the crypto industry is a fan of the new Trump crypto venture. 

“I think one of the risks that Trump should be thinking about is the potential for getting hacked, which would be bad publicity for the project, generally, but would be particularly bad publicity before an election,” said Michele Neitz, a visiting professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law and founding director of the Center for Law, Tech, and Social Good. “The project will attract a lot of attention, and these high-profile projects are often targets for hackers.”

Unauthorized posts directing readers to a fake version of the World Liberty Financial website recently appeared on the X accounts of Lara Trump, Trump’s daughter-in-law, and Trump’s daughter Tiffany Trump. 

The bio on the firm’s X account warned prior to the announcement: “Beware of Scams! Fake tokens & airdrop offers are circulating. We aren’t live yet!”

Corey Caplan, an advisor to World Liberty Financial, said security is a top priority.

Nic Carter, a crypto investor who supports Trump, warned on X that World Liberty Financial would be “the juiciest DeFi target ever” for hackers.

“Trump’s project will naturally invite a huge amount of scrutiny and from the track records of the individuals involved, (it) doesn’t look to have the chops to stand up against state-level sophisticated hackers,” Carter told USA TODAY.