Donald Trump Rolls Out His New Cryptocurrency Business
The New York Times
In a livestream, Mr. Trump formally introduced World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture led by a pair of digital currency enthusiasts with little experience running high-profile businesses.
A day after an apparent assassination attempt against Donald J. Trump, the former president appeared on a livestream on X on Monday to champion his latest business venture: cryptocurrencies.
“Crypto is one of those things we have to do,” Mr. Trump said. “Whether we like it or not, I have to do it.”
Beside him were his collaborators, including a family friend, some of Mr. Trump’s sons and a pair of little-known crypto enthusiasts with no experience running a high-profile business. Together, they were rolling out World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture that has raised concerns about Mr. Trump’s conflicts of interest and alarmed some of his most vocal supporters in the industry.
Mr. Trump has promoted the project since August, but its exact purpose remains unclear. On the livestream, he did not address the business directly, deferring to his partners. One of them has described himself as “the dirtbag of the internet,” while another used to teach classes on how to seduce women.
It’s unusual for a presidential candidate to embark on a new business just weeks before Election Day. But throughout his political career, Mr. Trump has engaged in business dealings that government ethics experts have flagged as problematic. He is the majority owner of Trump Media & Technology Group, the publicly traded parent company of his social media platform Truth Social, which accounts for some $2 billion of his personal wealth.
Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said that if Mr. Trump is elected, his involvement in the crypto venture would create serious conflicts of interest. The Securities and Exchange Commission has argued that virtually all cryptocurrencies are unregistered securities and ought to be regulated like stocks traded on Wall Street.
