Ex-POTUS Donald Trump used to call Bitcoin “a scam.” Now, as he aims for a second term as America’s president, he’s all for crypto.
Trump said he would unveil a plan on Thursday to ensure the United States becomes the global leader in crypto. In his post, the Republican Party nominee also tagged World Liberty Financial, a mysterious decentralized finance (DeFi) project his sons have promoted in recent weeks.
Making The U.S. The “Crypto Capital Of The Planet”
Donald Trump and two of his sons have for weeks publicly teased a “big announcement” around cryptocurrency and DeFi without sharing much information. Now, it seems that we could finally get more details about the proposed project.
Trump shared his vision to transform the United States into the preeminent crypto powerhouse in a video message on the X (aka Twitter) platform on Thursday morning:
“This afternoon I’m laying out my plan to ensure that the United States will be the crypto capital of the planet,” Trump said. They want to choke you, they want to choke you out of business. We’re not going to let that happen.”
.@worldlibertyfi pic.twitter.com/mwhVIzPJyq
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 29, 2024
While details are scant, the metadata of the World Liberty Financial website depicts the project as the “cutting-edge” DeFi platform that will connect people with “decentralized finance’s best tools for secure, high-yield crypto investments.”
Notably, scammers have taken advantage of the lack of specific details regarding the upcoming venture, promoting coins with claims that they are linked to the former commander-in-chief and World Liberty Financial.
“We have been made aware of some ads circulating on Telegram claiming to be from us, offering fake airdrops or token sales,” Trump’s team cautioned users on its Telegram channel. “We are not doing any airdrops or selling any tokens at this time.”
Donald Trump’s Crypto Embrace
Trump has this year pitched himself as a crypto-friendly candidate ahead of November’s election, and major crypto figures like the Winklevoss bros of Gemini and Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell have made generous donations to his presidential campaign.
Trump tapped Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate, with the potential VP considered a crypto-friendly candidate who previously reported owning a Bitcoin stash of between $100,000 and $250,000 since back in 2021.
But the most concrete indication of Trump’s embrace of crypto came in July at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville where he promised to build a “strategic national Bitcoin stockpile” if reelected.
That being said, the potential return of former crypto naysayer Trump to the Oval Office has raised hopes of a new crypto-friendly era in Washington.