Less than 50 days before the US presidential election, former US President and Republican President Donald Trump announced the official launch of his family's new financial revolution project World Liberty Financial (WLFI). He stated that cryptocurrency is a very powerful market. His sudden cryptocurrency investment is now facing scrutiny from Democrats in the US House of Representatives.
In a live interview on Twitter Space on Tuesday (September 17), Trump helped launch the decentralized finance (DeFi)-focused WLFI project, a cryptocurrency company led by his two sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., and real estate investor Steve Witkoff.
The venture is a new turn for Trump in embracing the world of cryptocurrency, which he has pledged to give a big boost to if he is elected in November.
Now, U.S. House Democrats say they will target the Trump family's WLFI cryptocurrency project, emphasizing that it has raised conflict of interest concerns because he incorporated the project into his policy message in support of cryptocurrency. If Democrats win the House again, they will have subpoena power in 2025, a power they used to target Trump's financial records during his first term.
“For those of us who care about preventing money laundering and protecting investors, this latest Trump family fraud must be subjected to the most rigorous scrutiny,” said Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois, the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee.
The comments underscore the risks Trump is taking by supporting business ventures started by his sons less than 50 days before the election, opening up new avenues for Democrats who have long sought to portray Trump as corrupt.
Trump's potential opponents include Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee, and Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee.
“The fundamental problem is that the presidency of the United States is not a money-making enterprise, or it shouldn’t be, and Trump has viewed it from the beginning as an extension of his business enterprises,” Raskin said in an interview last week. “This only exacerbates the conflict of interest and increases the exposure of more criminal and constitutional issues.”
Waters accused Trump of fraud in a recent hearing of the House Financial Services Committee, which she will chair if Republicans lose control of the House. Other Democrats on the committee are also eager to dig deeper.
They said the Trump family's policy of supporting cryptocurrencies when it founded Digital Assets was unethical.
If he wins, WLFI would likely become the latest financial services firm to become embroiled in congressional scrutiny of Trump. As committee chairmen, Waters and Rep. Adam Schiff subpoenaed Trump’s bank records in 2019, setting off a long-running legal standoff over their powers.
Trump did not address specific issues regarding the WLFI project during the live Q&A session, but he slammed the Harris Biden administration's attitude toward cryptocurrencies and once again vowed to enact policies that would benefit the industry.
“It’s a very hostile environment right now, and the SEC has been very unfriendly and really going after people," he said. "I have a different perspective on it, and I just think that whatever we do, we have to be on the leading edge.”
He also stated that cryptocurrency is "a very powerful market."
“I think what we’re doing here is really going to be a game changer, and it’s the beginning of a financial revolution,” Trump Jr. said during the livestream.
Although the details of the WLFI project were not mentioned in the live broadcast, its inside story was exposed by the cryptocurrency media.
According to Decrypt, many details of Trump's cryptocurrency project WLFI remain unclear, but the team behind WLFI revealed previously unconfirmed details in a live interview with Decrypt's sister company Rug Radio.
The project will provide cryptocurrency lending services on the Ethereum blockchain network, similar to the plethora of existing applications in DeFi, a general term for cryptocurrency products that provide financial services without the need for intermediaries such as banks.
Trump’s crypto project promises to be more “user-friendly” and accessible than existing tech-heavy alternatives and will be based on the non-transferable (i.e., non-tradable) WLFI governance token.
According to an excerpt from the WLFI white paper reviewed by Decrypt, the majority of the token's supply (62.66%) will be distributed in an upcoming token sale, with a portion of the net proceeds from the sale going into the project's multi-signature wallet treasury reserve. The remainder of the net proceeds from the sale will be paid to the project's founders, team, and service providers.
According to an excerpt from the white paper, approximately 17.33% of WLFI’s supply will be dedicated to incentivizing expanded participation in world free governance and other community development initiatives.
The remaining 20% of the token supply will be distributed to the project team, advisors, and future employees, with an undisclosed portion of WLFI going to the WLFI Foundation, affiliates of the Trump Organization, and the Witkoff Group, which is run by Witkoff, a longtime Trump ally and friend and participant in the World Freedom Movement.
Despite Trump's new actions, he did not mention Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies at all during his debate with Harris earlier in September, sparking doubts in the community.
