The Trump family not only has a significant impact on global crypto trends, but has also significantly expanded the share of projects it owns directly or indirectly. This potentially leads to the creation of a «crypto oligarchy». Although, perhaps, this can already be called a fact. From the beginning leading crypto companies spent millions of dollars on Trump’s election campaign, have invested at least $10 million in the inaugural fund of the 47th US president, as well as more than $131 million in support of pro-cryptocurrency candidates for Congress. And these are just the well-known figures. It is not surprising that Trump, who has been criticizing any cryptocurrency for years, suddenly changed his rhetoric and is now called nothing less than «the first crypto president». It’s time to pay back your debts (and make a little extra money).
The dog barks — the caravan goes
Besides the fact that the relatives of the American president are actively using their name to organize swings on the crypto market (shill), they are not limited to with simple posts on the X platform.
Trump’s influence has become so evident that Democrats on the US Senate Banking Committee applied to the Federal Reserve Board (Fed) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), calling for disclosure of measures the regulators are prepared to take to avoid risks to the financial system and potential conflicts of interest in connection with launching a stablecoin called USD1.
The complainants are concerned about possible political pressure from Trump, including excessive political influence from the White House on regulatory, supervisory or enforcement matters:
- The President can review any actions taken by the OCC regarding the USD1 stablecoin application.
- The President can intervene and prohibit the OCC from implementing safeguards to protect stablecoins or force the agency to refrain from any enforcement action against WLFIs.
- During a stressful period, the president may try to order the Federal Reserve to create an emergency liquidity mechanism to support the stablecoins, including USD1.
- The president may try to instruct the Federal Reserve to create a master account at the central bank for WLFIs.
- The president can intervene to deny aid to his stablecoin’s competitors.
The fish rots from the head. After the former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, resigned from his post, The department has lost interest in memkoins. SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce, known as «Cryptomama», said that most of these tokens probably do not fall under the agency’s jurisdiction. Interestingly, she expressed this opinion after questions about the regulation of such memorable coins such as TRUMP and MELANIA, on which most investors lost money. Instead, companies associated with the US president received at least $349 million.
A new cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar at a ratio of 1 to 1 is to be launched through the World Liberty Financial (WLFI) platform. Short-term US Treasury bills, US dollar deposits, and other cash equivalents will be used as financial reserves. Reserves to support the USD1 stablecoin will be held by the world’s largest independent qualified depository BitGo. Trump’s crypto czar (if officially — cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence advisor) David Sachs has invested in 12 crypto projects, including a digital securities platform for alternative investments and token issuance Harbor, acquired by BitGo in 2020.
Project World Liberty Financial completes public sale of WLFI tokens WLFI holders have the right to vote on changes to the project’s underlying code and make proposals for its further development in accordance with their share. Tokens cannot be traded. In January, the Trump family took control of the business. The two co-founders, crypto entrepreneurs Zach Volkman and Chase Herro, were replaced by a company in which the Trump family owns 60% of the shares. The firm WLF Holdco LLC also claims 75% of the net revenue from the sale of WLFI tokens.
In other words, the Trump family is entitled to about $400 million in fees. With all these changes and features, World Liberty Financial, although called a DeFi
And that’s not all. The sons of the US president Eric and Donald set up a bitcoin mining company called American Bitcoin in partnership with the well-known mining firm Hut 8. Trump’s sons and their partners will own 20% of the joint venture. Eric Trump will become chief strategy officer of the newly created firm.
Hut 8 has 61 thousand mining machines located in 11 data centers in the United States.
The World Liberty Financial coins were bought mainly by the rich: almost 70% of the money came from wallets that spent at least $100 thousand USD, and more than 50% were purchases of $1 million or more. Interesting, interesting.
One of these large investors was Tron founder Justin Sun, who bought $75 million worth of tokens. World Liberty Financial managed to buy $10 million worth of Tron (TRX) tokens.
What’s next?
Trump’s intentions are clear. According to rumors, there were talks about acquisition of the American division of Binance and cryptocurrency exchange Bakkt by exchanging shares. Although they have not been successful, every word from both Trump and his sons has already seemed to move the market both up and down. The best recent example: during his speech on April 2, the US president said that he plans to impose additional industry-specific tariffs on semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and possibly cryptocurrencies.
At the beginning of his speech, prices for top assets spiked, but then dropped sharply to previous levels. Investors are still in a state of uncertainty and are afraid to trade. First, the positions of those who were shorting were liquidated, and then those who were longing.
So far, the market is very disappointed with the actions of the American leader. The bullish momentum that existed at the beginning of the year has turned bearish. Trump was viewed as a powerful political force that would finally make cryptocurrencies legal and promote their widespread adoption (the so-called mass adoption). However, he did not live up to expectations.
Nick Carter, a Trump supporter and founding partner of Castle Island Ventures, a cryptocurrency venture capital company believesThe president’s inner circle is simply cashing in on his new hobby.
«It looks like Trump’s inner circle is just naively cashing in on his recent cryptocurrency craze, and frankly, it looks like they’re destroying a lot of the goodwill that has been built up with the industry so far».
This is indirectly evidenced, for example, by the fact that the 47th President of the United States said that he knows little about TRUMP.
One thing is certain: the influence of Trump (or those behind him) on the crypto market is enormous. So significant that China decided to intervene. The country starts promoting its own cryptocurrency and yuan.