As it turns out, Trump was quickly won over: Despite previously dismissing bitcoin as a “scam,” Trump has recently been pitching himself as crypto president. In July, addressing thousands of bitcoiners at a conference in Nashville, Tennessee, Trump promised to transform the U.S. into the “crypto capital of the planet” and create a national “bitcoin supply” if he were re-elected. In a post on X following the speech, Tyler Winklevoss celebrated how the former president had been “orange-pilled” — crypto jargon for “indoctrinated.”
When Eric and Donald Jr. first started hinting at the World Liberty Financial project, there was speculation that they were working on launching an official Trump crypto token.
Over the past year, dozens of Trump-inspired meme coins have entered the market, becoming a sort of harbinger of the upcoming election, with prices fluctuating in tandem with Trump’s political fortunes. One such token, DJT, released in early June, surged in price amid rumors that it originated from the Trump family. In an X segment, Martin Shkreli, of “pharma bro” fame, claimed to have created the token in collaboration with Barron Trump, the former president’s 18-year-old son. On Aug. 6, the price of DJT plummeted 90 percent after large quantities were sold off by an anonymous token holder. “It wasn’t me!” Shkreli told WIRED in an email when asked if he knew who was behind the selloff. DJT was trading at $0.0002441 per coin on Monday.
The Trump campaign press office did not respond to questions about Barron's alleged involvement with the DJT token. In a post on X in the lead-up to World Liberty Financial's announcement, Donald Jr. warned followers to “beware of fake tokens claiming to be part of the Trump project.”
World Liberty Financial will face stiff competition in a DeFi market already crowded with similar services, including Aave, Compound, Venus Protocol and others. “DeFi is quite mature, especially on the over-collateralized side,” said Zach Hamilton, founder of crypto startup Sarcophagus and venture partner at VC firm Venture51.
But the Trumps don't necessarily need to do anything new if they can use their massive public platform to promote their new venture.”[World Liberty Financial] “is launching with the most free marketing a crypto company could ever get,” Hamilton says. “Trump is the king of rent-free living in people’s eyes.”
Established players in the DeFi industry are cautiously optimistic about the Trump family’s arrival. They welcome the publicity, but are also concerned about the reputational damage that World Liberty Financial could cause if the company were to go under or if a technical issue were to lead to financial losses.
“I applaud any attempt to bring DeFi to the mainstream,” said Brad Harrison, CEO of Venus Protocol. “But like the autopilot in a Tesla, DeFi may seem simple, but its inner workings are complex. Without a solid grasp on its nuances in the hands of seasoned technologists and financial engineers, a new platform runs the risk of being more of a branding exercise than a substantial and secure contribution to the space.”
Regardless of the risk of trusting an untested crypto platform, industry enthusiasts are likely to back World Liberty Financial, if only to show support for Trump’s political efforts. “We’re absolutely dealing with crypto as a right-wing Republican commodity right now,” said Jacob Silverman, co-author of Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud. “The industry is so tied to the Republican Party and they are the biggest donors to any industry this cycle.”
In the spirit of several British politicians who have divested from crypto positions, World Liberty Financial could be an attempt by Trump to hedge against a loss in the upcoming election, and set himself up with a stopgap solution.
“Maybe the raucous reception at the crypto conference in Nashville gave him the impression that this is the world he wants to be in because they love him and he can make money,” Silverman says. “For all his faults, he understands the crowd.”
