The Trump family’s latest business venture — originally launched as a DeFi platform called “The Defiant Ones,” but since rebranded as World Liberty Financial — is fraught with controversy just days after it was unveiled.
While Trump’s eldest sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., are “ambassadors” for World Liberty Financial, CoinDesk Reports The company, formerly known as “Defiant,” is also linked to individuals involved in the liquidity protocol Dough Finance.
Remember how the financing dough lost $1.8 million worth of Ethereum (ETH) and USD Coin (USDC) were stolen as a result of a flash loan attack on July 12.
Zachary Folkman and Chase Herro — the duo behind Dough Finance — are also co-chairs of the new Trump-led company. They founded cryptocurrency-focused Date Hotter Girls LLC and Pacer Capital, respectively.
Trump first endorsed the DeFi project on August 22. mail On Truth Social. It was published. I talked about it again on August 29th (by then it was called World LibertyFi).
Later, the X accounts of two of his family members were hacked and used to promote a fake Solana-based memecoin. Lara Trump, co-chair of the Republican National Committee, was among those targeted.
The whole initiative sounds suspicious to crypto venture capitalist and Trump supporter Nick Carter, who didn’t hesitate to say so. “This is a huge mistake,” he said. He said According to Politico, “Trump’s inner circle appears to be capitalizing on his recent embrace of cryptocurrencies in a somewhat naive way, and frankly they appear to be burning through a lot of the goodwill that has been built up with the industry so far.”
“Good faith?” It is worth noting that some of the most famous names in the sector have been convicted of fraud.
Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison; crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon spent more than six months in a Montenegrin prison; and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Trump is also no stranger to his business ventures being marred by legal violations (see Donald J. Trump Foundation and Trump UniversityHe is also the first former US president to be convicted of criminal offenses.
Trump, Cryptocurrencies, and Trust
Trump, who once said he was “not a fan” of Bitcoin (BTC), has been weaving pro-cryptocurrency policies into his campaign speeches in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election.
In May, he became the first major political candidate to accept cryptocurrency donations. Cryptocurrency advocates were then bombarded with promises if Trump were reelected: a government-backed cryptocurrency reserve and the removal of Gary Gensler, the much-criticized current chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
This $180 million has earned him the financial backing and support of deep-pocketed individuals like Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss — founders of the Gemini exchange — who each gave $1 million in Bitcoin to the former president.
But since then, scammers have targeted his so-called “MAGA” base with fake crypto sites and misleading donation centers. In June, a London-based cybersecurity firm called Netcraft began Watching Multiple attacks on the Trump campaign, fraudulent donation schemes and phishing attempts discovered.
The recent scrutiny surrounding World LibertyFi and its global currency Liberty Coin is no different.
For weeks, the Trump brothers had been promoting a financial project that would challenge the traditional banking system. When the project first came out, the scammers had plenty of new material to work with.
Carter, who remains a Trump supporter (because “Trump himself is only tangentially involved”), warns that the Global Freedom Project is “really hurting” the Republican nominee’s chances in the election. Polls show the presidential race against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris is very close.
“This coin would be the most interesting target in DeFi ever, and it’s a fork of a hacked protocol. (It’s) also an obvious target for the SEC,” he wrote on Sept. 3. “At best, it’s an unnecessary distraction, and at worst, it’s a huge embarrassment and a source of (additional) legal trouble.”
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