[Text/Observer Network Chen Sijia] U.S. President Trump is keen on cryptocurrency investment. Since the last U.S. presidential election, his family has also frequently participated in related projects. On April 12, Bloomberg reported that public data shows that the Trump family has ventured into non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Bitcoin "mining," and launching personal cryptocurrencies, earning nearly $1 billion in paper profits through these projects.
Trump was once a skeptic of cryptocurrencies. In an interview in June 2021, he publicly criticized cryptocurrencies as a "fraud affecting the value of the dollar" and advocated for strict regulation of cryptocurrencies. However, to win the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Trump quickly changed his stance on the U.S. digital asset industry and began courting cryptocurrency companies.
Wealthy from real estate, Trump is now one of America's richest presidents. After being elected for the first time in 2016, Trump's lawyer established a trust to handle business affairs. Eric Trump, one of the trustees managing the trust and Trump's son, told Bloomberg in April this year: "I do not collaborate with the White House. We have long believed in cryptocurrencies."
Bloomberg pointed out that the Trump family's involvement in cryptocurrency investments is relatively recent. In December 2022, at the suggestion of Bill Zanker, founder of American adult education company The Learning Annex, Trump started selling NFT digital trading cards. The related products mainly include images of Trump dressed as superheroes or posing for golf, among other things.
Last year, Trump hosted a dinner for supporters who purchased his NFT digital trading cards. Financial information shows that this business brought millions of dollars in revenue to Trump.
In September 2024, just before the start of the U.S. presidential election, the Trump family announced the launch of the cryptocurrency project "World Liberty Financial." Since its inception, the project has been purchasing cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Tron but has yet to introduce its promised decentralized finance services, such as lending cryptocurrencies without intermediaries.
Last July, Trump spoke at the 2024 Bitcoin Conference Visual China
The report stated that DT Marks DeFi LLC, a company controlled by the Trump family, owns 60% of the equity in "World Liberty Financial." According to issuance documents, associated companies with Trump can obtain 75% of net income. After completing the second round of token sales last month, "World Liberty Financial" has raised $550 million in token sales.
Notably, one of the co-founders of "World Liberty Financial" is Zach Witkoff, son of Steve Witkoff, Trump's Middle East envoy during his administration. Zach Witkoff helped the Trump family connect with other participants, raising questions about potential conflicts of interest among critics.
In January, just days before Trump officially assumed the presidency, he and his wife Melania Trump successively launched personal meme coins. This type of cryptocurrency lacks actual economic or transactional value and is generally considered a speculative trading tool. These meme coins brought over $11.4 million in revenue to entities associated with Trump in January, but their prices soon plummeted.
In early February, Trump Media & Technology Group announced that it had applied for trademarks for a series of investment products themed around "America First," including "Truth.Fi Bitcoin Plus ETF" related to Bitcoin. On March 25, "World Liberty Financial" announced the launch of a stablecoin USD1 pegged to the U.S. dollar, supported by U.S. Treasury bills, dollar deposits, and other cash equivalents. It will initially be minted on the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain blockchains.
On March 31 local time, the Trump family said they plan to establish a joint venture focused on Bitcoin "mining." Bloomberg noted that the "Bitcoin miners" group is one of Trump's important campaign supporters. In June 2024, Trump welcomed several executives from "mining" companies at Mar-a-Lago and promised to support them if he returns to the White House.
Last month, The Wall Street Journal dropped a bombshell, reporting that the Trump family had discussed shares with the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, causing the price of BNB to soar. However, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao later denied the matter on social media, calling the report "written to attack the president's crypto policy, with remnants of the 'war against crypto' from the previous U.S. administration still causing trouble."
Bloomberg statistics show that according to public data, even considering market fluctuations caused by Trump's "tariff war," these cryptocurrency projects have still brought nearly $1 billion in paper profits to the Trump family.
Eswar Prasad, a trade policy professor at Cornell University, commented: "It seems that Trump and his family want to establish a broad foothold in the field before further regulatory actions begin, as these actions may increase the valuation of crypto assets."
However, these moves have also sparked outside concerns about the Trump family "money-making" and conflicts of interest. Due to the ability of crypto assets to quickly attract billions of dollars in speculative funds almost transparently, ethics experts and industry insiders recently warned that the Trump family's involvement in cryptocurrencies could lead to conflicts of interest and even national security risks, potentially becoming a means for interest groups to try to buy influence over the president.
Anthony Scaramucci, former director of the White House, said: "Anyone in the world can simply click a few times and deposit money into the U.S. president's bank account." Norman Eisen, former White House ethics advisor during the Obama administration, expressed concern that "there is an extremely serious conflict of interest between what Trump seeks to gain and his responsibilities to regulate the industry."
Shortly after taking office, Trump signed an executive order to strengthen the United States' leadership in digital financial technology and established a digital asset market working group within the National Economic Council of the White House. On March 6 local time, Trump signed another executive order to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve and promote the United States as a "digital asset strategic leader."
This article is an exclusive piece by the Observer Network and cannot be reprinted without permission.
Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7492614374113165861/
Disclaimer: This article represents the views of the author alone, and you are welcome to express your attitude in the [Like/Dislike] buttons below.