By New York Post (Politics) | Created at 2024-09-30 16:57:29 | Updated at 2024-09-30 19:36:31
2 hours ago
After more than a year of speculation, Donald Trump announced Monday enrollment for World Liberty Financial — his family company’s entry into the cryptocurrency world — has finally begun.
And it’s a family affair, with youngest son Barron even having a role.
“I promised to Make America Great Again, this time with crypto,” the former president tweeted. The enterprise aims to “help make America the crypto capital of the world! The whitelist for eligible persons is officially open — this is your chance to be part of this historic moment.”
I promised to Make America Great Again, this time with crypto. @WorldLibertyFi is planning to help make America the crypto capital of the world! The whitelist for eligible persons is officially open – this is your chance to be part of this historic moment. Join:…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2024Trump placed his assets in the company he spent a lifetime building in a trust when he entered the White House in 2017 and handed over the firm’s day-to-day management to his sons Donald Jr. and Eric.
Ahead of the launch, Eric Trump exclusively spoke with The Post and explained WLF’s mission: to offer Americans an alternative to “big” banks and “traditional” lenders.
“Nobody knows better than myself and my family how complicated, corrupt and biased today’s banking systems are,” said the 40-year-old Trump Organization executive vice president. “The system isn’t working. If it doesn’t work for us then it damn sure isn’t working for folks with a few less zeroes in their accounts. We’ve gotta solve that.”
Eric and Donald Trump at July’s Republican National Convention. REUTERSThe Trumps’ proposed solution is the decentralized-finance (DeFi) firm WLF — tagline: “Be DeFiant” — and their goal is simple but ambitious: make it as easy for people to get a loan as it is to send a text.
“We came to realize: Why? Why can’t someone just write this into a simple program that makes it easy for regular people to access financial markets and healthy debt without all these fees and middlemen? Why? There’s absolutely no reason anymore,” Trump said. “This is not just bitcoin. It’s about making the financial markets a truly decentralized, truly equitable exchange for the very first time.”
To do this, Trump said WLF will democratize banking by leveraging what the blockchain does best: distributing the digital ownership of physical value.
“WLF will not be an exchange” like Binance or Coinbase, WLF co-founder Zak Folkman told The Post. “It is a governance platform that will allow permissionless and peer-to-peer borrowing and lending of digital assets.”
This means if someone needs money to redo their kitchen or start a business, they can be vetted, verified and funded with real cash in minutes instead of months.
“WLF’s platform is designed with simplicity, making it easy for blockchain newcomers to navigate DeFi confidently. Our goal is to make it as simple to use DeFi as it is to use apps from the App Store,” Folkman said.
Trump said his company worked with “serious experts” and “true geniuses” like Folkman to get WLF ready for launch.
Crypto and DeFi are sleeping political giants that finally began to stir in 2024.
So far, the industries have donated more than $190 million to political candidates on both sides of the aisle this cycle — but with a new slant towards pro-business Republicans that’s raising eyebrows on the left. That’s up from just $60 million in 2020.
The new kids on the blockchain seem ready to take a bigger step towards the spotlight — and the Trumps couldn’t be happier to help.
Eric Trump told The Post today’s banks are “sluggish” and “will almost certainly be replaced by DeFi” in the next 25 years.
His father was once skeptical about the new technology, but he’s come around and then some: The former prez vowed to make America “the crypto capital of the planet” when he spoke at the 2024 Bitcoin Conference in July.
Donald Trump courted crypto voters at the industry’s biggest event while Vice President Kamala Harris was nowhere to be found — though she’s said she plans to learn more about the topic.
“There’s no reason everyday people should be paying for a bank president’s third beach house,” Eric said. “People are getting crushed by these middlemen and rich manipulators. But if someone has, say, 30 bitcoin, why should anyone be able to stop her from borrowing against that? Well, soon they won’t be able to. Then we’ll see who gets crushed.”
WLF’s senior leadership team is also now official and includes Donald Trump, Eric Trump, Folkman, Donald Trump Jr., Chase Herron, real-estate wiz Steve Witkoff — and the former president’s youngest child, Barron Trump.
Eric Trump told The Post he couldn’t wait for the coming launch.
“This is a chance to cancel those big institutions that tried to cancel us,” he said. “You don’t have to be a member of my family to know what that feels like. I think we’re all ready for some liberty.”
