Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump announced Thursday afternoon the official launch date of World Liberty Financial, the crypto project that has been teased by his family for the past two months.
"Join me live on Twitter Spaces at 8 p.m. this September 16 for the launch of World Liberty Financial," Trump says in a video posted from his official X account. "We're embracing the future with crypto and leaving the slow and outdated big banks behind."
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump on Aug. 7 teased upcoming announcements related to the world of crypto and DeFi. On Sept. 3, CoinDesk reported on a whitepaper being workshopped that said the project will be built on the decentralized finance platform Aave and the Ethereum blockchain and center around a "credit account system.”
In his bid for reelection this year, Trump has embraced the crypto community after previously holding a negative stance. He went so far as to speak at the Bitcoin 2024 conference earlier this summer, where he said he would fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler if he were elected president again. He also announced he would stop the U.S. from selling any of its 213,000 bitcoin.
Earlier this month, Dolomite co-founder Corey Caplan was named as an advisor for World Liberty Financial. Shortly thereafter, the project said it is both making security a top concern and wants to drive the adoption of stablecoins.
"We’re not taking any chances. We’re working with the top security experts in the world— Zokyo, Fuzzland, PeckShield, BlockSecTeam, and more," the project posted on its Telegram channel. "Our code has been thoroughly reviewed by these industry leaders. We are utilizing best practices and making user security our primary concern."
Start your day with the most influential events and analysis
happening across the digital asset ecosystem.
This occurred just two days after Lara and Tiffany Trump’s X accounts were hacked, posting about a token purportedly associated with World Liberty Financial.
Rep. Maxine Waters, ranking Democrat of the House Financial Services Committee, earlier this week criticized the Trump-backed crypto project.
"While decentralized finance, or DeFi, aims to create greater efficiencies and transparency, it can also pose heightened risks of hacks, scams, unequal information and conflicts of interest that can harm consumers and investors," Waters said. "We've seen this play out in the new DeFi venture that Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. plan to launch, called World Liberty Financial."
Updated at 4:23 p.m. ET with additional details.
Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.
© 2024 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.