Trump's new crypto project is a type linked to organized crime and terrorism

The crypto lobby is pouring boatloads of cash into the latest presidential campaign of former President Donald Trump, who has completely abandoned his once-hardline stance against digital currencies as campaign money pours in.

Now, on the back of his recent pledge to make America the “crypto capital of the world,” Trump is preparing to unveil a terribly dubious and ethically fraught new crypto project started by none other than his son Eric and Donald Trump, Jr.

The project is called World Liberty Financial (WLFI), and it centers on “stablecoins,” or coins that creators claim are pegged to stable commodities or official currencies. In an ex-Twitter thread posted last week, the WLFI team claimed that their stablecoin will be pegged to the US dollar.

“For too long, the average American has been held down by big banks and financial elites,” Trump, a financial elite whose penthouse is caked in gold, said in an ex-Twitter video Thursday promoting the upcoming crypto initiative. “It's time to take our stand – together.”

But when stablecoins sound As stable as they should be, they have historically been disastrous for investors and the economy.

The collapse of the so-called stablecoin Terra-Luna was at the heart of the 2022 crypto crash that wiped out nearly $2 trillion from the market, resulting not only in the catastrophic collapse of billion-dollar crypto ventures like FTX but also in wiping out people's entire life savings. thin air

What's more, as The Wall Street Journal As reported last year, stablecoins are a favorite financing tool of organized crime and terrorist groups, who use the idle digital currency to launder cash, traffic drugs and even people.

And above all, there are too many conflicts of interest to enumerate.

If elected, Trump has already promised to reduce crypto regulations and bring digital currencies into the mainstream American economic fold. WLFI would capitalize on those pro-crypto regulatory changes, thus putting a sitting president in a position to support a potentially profitable family business through the power of the federal government. And like Trump's Truth Social meme stock, WLFIO will offer an obvious new avenue for the Trump family's favors, as wealthy operators looking to siphon off money can simply invest in the Trump sons' stablecoins.

Some of the non-Trump family characters involved in the project are reportedly too creepy to even make up. as Bloomberg News According to the report, a key WLFI “dealmaker” is a man named Chase Hero, a former cologne cleanse salesman who said in a 2018 YouTube video — while driving in a Rolls-Royce — that “you're literally selling shit in a can. Can, urine, covered in human skin, for a billion dollars if the story is right, because people will buy it.”

“I'm not going to question the right and wrong of all that,” Herro added. Obviously the kind of people you want involved in the American economy.

WLFI defended its stablecoin efforts in an X post this month as a way to ensure the “dominance” of the US dollar and maintain America's financial leadership on the international stage. In the same thread, the agency claims without evidence that the US dollar is actively under attack by an unnamed “foreign-nation state”. But economic experts overwhelmingly agree that the scaremongering claims surrounding the supposed imminent collapse of the US dollar are exaggerated and that it may take decades to knock the US dollar off its peak.

Through one lens, Trump's very public support for WLFI is the latest example of the former president using his campaign to promote personal or family businesses. In addition to standard campaign merch, he's selling less-common gold shoes for about $500, as well as $299 pairs of “Trump Crypto President” low-tops in a “Bitcoin Orange” shade; own $99 NFTs; Adopt a $59.99 “Patriot” Bible; and a recently published coffee table book in which he threatens to jail Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, available for $99 (although you can get a signed edition for $499.)

But the implications of WLFI are far more serious than expensive Bibles and random junk.

In addition to being used to finance illegal activities around the world, stablecoins have proven to be anything but stable. Couple that with the obvious risk of corruption that the Trump family's involvement in the crypto world should the former president retake the Oval Office, and WLFI's project is just as dangerous as bankruptcy.

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