GOP nominee Donald Trump has promised to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet” if he’s able to win back the White House in November.
A report from ABC News issued this week said that if that were to happen, Trump himself would personally benefit immensely.
During his campaign for president, Trump has launched a business venture that trades cryptocurrencies. He’s promoting that platform on the same social media accounts that he uses for his political campaigns.
The former president’s two eldest sons, Eric and Donald Jr., have also posted about the new platform, which is called World Liberty Financial. His daughter-in-law Lara, who is Eric’s wife and is the Republican National Committee co-chair, has also posted about the company.
Promoting business ventures alongside his political aspirations is nothing new for Trump, who has long promoted his golf courses and hotels while he was in the White House. He has often promoted his Truth Social platform on the campaign trail as well.
This latest venture, though, could benefit substantially if he becomes president and ends up pushing through changes to regulations and laws that crypto advocates have long sought.
Jordan Libowitz, who works for the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington watchdog group as a spokesperson, said:
“Taking a pro-crypto stance is not necessarily troubling; the troubling aspect is doing it while starting a way to personally benefit from it. The success of this could be very tied to American economic policy.”
Cryptocurrency is a type of digital money that can be exchanged over the internet without going through the traditional global banking system. There are exchanges that are set up specifically to trade them, which in essence are clearinghouses for people to trade, sell and buy different cryptos.
The exchanges make their money by charging people fees for withdrawing cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, which is the largest crypto in the world.
CoinDesk, which is a news site dedicated to the crypto industry, reported recently that Trump’s new venture is expected to serve as a lending and borrowing service. That would make it similar to Dough Finance, an app that was recently hacked.
Four people who are listed as team members at World Liberty Financial built the app that Dough Finance uses.
Trump has made an about-face on cryptocurrency in the last five years. While he was serving in the White House, he often said he was “not a fan” of crypto.
In 2019, he even tweeted:
“Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity.”
In recent years, he’s taken a different stance. His campaign even announced back in May that they’d start to accept cryptocurrency donations as part of their effort to build a “crypto army” in the lead-up to Election Day in November.
At a Bitcoin conference that was held in Nashville earlier this year, Trump promised he’d make America the “crypto capital of the planet,” while also creating a “strategic reserve” of bitcoin using currency that the federal government currently holds.
