If reelected, Donald Trump is vowing to make America the “crypto capital of the planet”. Fulfilling that pledge may benefit him.
Trump has started a cryptocurrency trading company that he promotes on his campaign social media platforms. His daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, who is married to Eric and co-chair of the Republican National Committee, is also blogging about their new platform, World Liberty Financial.
Trump has promoted his hotels and golf courses in the White House and sold shoes, Bibles, and social media shares throughout his campaign. Trump's new business might boom if he's elected and can push crypto enthusiasts' legislative and regulatory improvements.
"Taking a pro-crypto stance is not troubling; doing it while trying to profit from it is," said Jordan Libowitz, a spokeswoman for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Digital currencies like cryptocurrencies may be exchanged online outside the global financial system. Coin exchanges are used to purchase, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies. Exchanges charge for Bitcoin and other currency withdrawals.
CoinDesk reports that World Liberty Financial will be a borrowing and lending business like the recently hacked Dough Finance, an app designed by four World Liberty Financial team members.
World Liberty Financial's ownership by Trump and his family is unclear. Eric Trump tweeted that Lara and Tiffany had been hacked after Lara Trump wrote on her X account about “our goal at World Liberty” on Tuesday.
Trump stated in 2019 that “Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity.”
In May, Trump announced that the campaign would begin accepting cryptocurrency donations to build a “crypto army” before Election Day. This year, he promised to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet” and create a bitcoin “strategic reserve” using the currency the government currently holds.
Trump has said he will pressure the Federal Reserve to decrease interest rates if reelected. He also supports decentralized finance, or “DeFi,” which uses public blockchain space to threaten conventional banking.
Trump has also proposed financing Bitcoin mining to boost energy production and threatened to oppose the formation of a Federal Reserve-administered Central Bank Digital Currency, a public digital currency. Many crypto proponents reject a centrally administered digital currency, however it is currently being investigated.
The Trump and Harris camps did not reply to AP requests for comment.
Cryptocurrency might help the Trump campaign access younger males, particularly conservative influencers. Trump backers who worry about government control over global markets and the “deep state” also like crypto.
Dustin Stockton, a pro-Trump activist turned crypto influencer, supports the former president's crypto efforts and World Liberty Financial's debut.
"The Trump family's engagement and involvement, and learning about crypto, I think is positive," he added. SEC chairman Gary Gensler's pursuit of Coinbase and Binance casts the Biden administration as anti-crypto, Stockton says.
Despite a 2022 White House executive order on digital assets, Congress and the White House have not approved any legislation. Stockton said the Biden administration's unclear written guidelines and the SEC's heavy-handed enforcement of crypto businesses via litigation show “there's no clarity and there's selective and arbitrary enforcement of regulations.”
