The White Houses encrypted revolving door: revealing the Trump familys hidden wealth

By Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker

Compiled by: BitpushNews an

Suppose there is an individual with great political power who produces 10 billion raffle tickets and sells them publicly. Participants who purchase these raffle tickets will eventually receive a certain percentage of magic beans as rewards, and each magic bean can be exchanged for one dollar. More importantly, if the raffle tickets are purchased in advance, the price will be less than one dollar, and may even be as low as five cents each. These raffle tickets will not only bring more traditional currency benefits to the holder in the future, but also give the holder voting rights on company affairs, enabling them to participate in the management of the supply of magic beans, and the more raffle tickets purchased, the greater their voice. It should be noted that the initiator of the raffle will keep a batch of raffle tickets for himself, and most of the income generated by the magic bean economy will also flow into his hands.

The above description actually reflects the working mechanism of a new kriptocurrency created by World Liberty Financial, a company associated with the Trump family. The company is headed by President Donald Trump as Chief Crypto Advocate. The cryptocurrency is a so-called governance token called WLFI, which is equivalent to raffle tickets; another stablecoin called USD 1 corresponds to magic beans. World Liberty Financial is involved in the emerging field of decentralized finance, in which cryptocurrency tools enable users to bypass the traditional, regulated banking ecosystem to transfer, store and borrow funds. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that are pegged to the value of a single currency, such as one dollar, but are not always stable. For example, the once successful stablecoin Terra lost its peg and collapsed in 2022. As long as stablecoins are not identified as securities (such as stocks of publicly traded companies), their legal status is relatively vague. A statement from World Liberty Financial said: World Liberty Financial does not consider these tokens to be securities. In January 2023, the Trumps quietly acquired a controlling stake in World Liberty Financial through a company called DT Marks Defi. Although disclosures indicate that Trump family members are not “executives, directors, or employees” of World Freedom Finance, DT Marks Defi received 75% of its subsidiary’s net income. (The remaining 25% went to Axiom Management Group, which is associated with the two official leaders of World Freedom Finance, Chase Herro and Zachary Folkman; it’s worth noting that Folkman also runs a company called Date Hotter Girls.)

Trump was once a cryptocurrency skeptic, stating in a 2019 tweet: “I don’t like Bitcoin.” Yet in recent years he has aggressively promoted various “magic beans” projects, giving a PR boost to an industry where startups often die just after they get off the ground. In 2022, he launched Trump digital trading cards, a series of non-fungible tokens (NFT'ler) that continue to release new batches, including a January 2024 “mug shot” version featuring a photo of him glaring at a police officer. (Buyers of the “mug shot” NFT received an invitation to Mar-a-Lago.) Three days before his inauguration, he also launched a so-called meme coin, a cryptocurrency based on online fame that early buyers sell to later buyers at higher prices, essentially a pyramid scheme. Trump Meme Madeni Para ($TRUMP) consists of a billion coins, 80% of which are held by Trump-related companies and the rest are sold to the public. Its sales reportedly generated approximately $350 million in revenue, with a market value of nearly $3 billion; notably, Trump’s business entities earn fees from every Trump MemeCoin transaction.

Trump Memecoin prices have now fallen to less than one-fifth of their all-time highs, and many buyers have experienced a devaluation of their investments. The subsequent Melania Trump Memecoin has performed even worse. However, an event held by Trumps affiliated organization and its crypto-related project Fight Fight Fight has recently caused the price of Trumpcoin to rebound. In this crypto carnival with on-chain holdings as admission tickets, the top 220 holders of holdings will be eligible to have dinner with Donald Trump – this dinner will be held at the Trump National Golf Club in Washington, DC, which actually builds a new political donation channel; and the top 25 whale holders will have access to a closed-door reception. The new lobbying access mechanism constructed by token holdings directly converts cryptocurrency holdings into political contact capital, making Trumpcoin an alternative power realization channel outside the traditional political donation system. Many memecoin investors are from overseas, and some of them have made no secret of their desire to influence Trumps policy agenda in this way. For example, an Australian entrepreneur told The New York Times that he hopes to discuss crypto policy with the president, while a Mexican buyer said he hopes to get Trumps attention on tariffs.On Tuesday, a small company that runs TikToks e-commerce business in China announced plans to buy $300 million worth of TrumpCoin and Bitcoin, as the Trump administration considers whether to move forward with a ban on TikTok.

However, World Freedom Finance’s influence extends far beyond Trump Memecoin. Its stablecoins can be easily and reliably exchanged for U.S. dollars, creating an underground Trump-sponsored economy that is like opening a new bank under the name of the sitting president, and a multitude of foreign businesses and political elites around the world are funneling large amounts of money into it. Major buyers of large amounts of WLFI include Chinese crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, who purchased $75 million worth of WLFI, and Abu Dhabi-based cryptocurrency trading firm DWF Labs, which purchased $25 million worth of WLFI. In March, World Freedom Finance announced that it had sold more than $500 million worth of tokens. Earlier this month, another Abu Dhabi-based investment firm announced that it would use USD 1, a stablecoin controlled by World Freedom Finance, to make a $2 billion investment in Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

Buying Trump-style “magic beans” is a means of gaining influence, just as foreign dignitaries stayed at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. during his first administration. However, World Liberty Finance’s actions make hotel rentals seem insignificant by comparison. The more money flows into WLFI and USD 1, the more legitimate and valuable these currencies appear, and their market capitalization will climb. Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin, has a market capitalization of nearly $150 billion and daily trading volume of more than $30 billion. World Liberty Finance is eager to create similar influence.

The American public has been so inundated with news about the Trump family’s pursuit of personal gain that many of their actions hardly cause an uproar these days. Just this week, news broke that the government is preparing to accept a luxury Boeing 747-8 jet from the Qatari royal family to use as Air Force One, at least until Boeing completes its new Air Force One. The Department of Defense will receive the plane, but it will reportedly be donated to Trump’s presidential library when he leaves office, making the $400 million aircraft private property—even though the arrangement would appear to be a clear violation of the foreign gifts clause that prohibits U.S. officials from accepting gifts from foreign leaders and governments. (Trump has dismissed ethical concerns by saying it would be “foolish” to refuse gifts.) In the cryptocurrency space, however, opposition is growing within Congress to Trump’s business activities. Last week, some Democratic senators refused to pass a popular pro-cryptocurrency bill because of the president’s blatant profiteering. “The negative consequences of this behavior are obvious,” Republican Senator Cynthia Loomis of Wyoming recently told The New York Times. Yet so far, the Trumps appear to have accurately bet on one fact: No one can really stop them.

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