Donald Trump launched his new cryptocurrency business

Donald J. A day after an apparent assassination attempt against Trump, the former president appeared on a livestream on X on Monday to champion his latest business venture: cryptocurrencies.

“Crypto is something we have to do,” Mr. Trump said. “Whether we like it or not, I have to do it.”

He was flanked by aides, including a family friend, some of Mr. Trump's sons and a pair of little-known crypto enthusiasts with no experience running high-profile businesses. Together, they were launching World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture that has raised concerns about Mr. Trump's conflicts of interest and alarmed his most vocal supporters in the industry.

Mr Trump has touted the project since August, but its exact purpose remains unclear. In the livestream, he did not address the business directly, deferring to his partners. One of them described himself as an “internet dirtbag”, while the other used to teach classes on how to seduce women.

It's unusual for a presidential candidate to start a new business weeks before Election Day. But throughout his political career, Mr. Trump has engaged in business dealings that government ethics experts have characterized as problematic. He is the majority owner of Trump Media & Technology Group, the publicly traded parent company of his social media platform Truth Social, which accounts for nearly $2 billion of his personal wealth.

Daniel Bryan, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said that if Mr. Trump were elected, his involvement in crypto ventures would create a serious conflict of interest. The Securities and Exchange Commission has argued that virtually all cryptocurrencies should be regulated like unregistered securities and stocks traded on Wall Street.

Mr Bryan said Mr Trump would “be able to push regulatory agencies to favor the businesses he's involved with”. Ethics experts say his ownership of social media companies raises similar issues.

Representatives for the Trump Organization and World Liberty Financial did not respond to requests for comment.

For years, Mr. Trump has been a crypto skeptic who has declared Bitcoin a “scam.” But on the campaign trail, he has become a vocal supporter, speaking at popular industry conferences and collecting donations from crypto executives.

World Liberty Financial's plans began in early July, when a trademark application for the new platform was filed by AMG Software Solutions, a Puerto Rico-based company. The following month, Mr. Trump and his two eldest sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., began posting about the project on X.

Privately, people involved with World Liberty Financial have pitched it as a borrowing and lending platform, according to three people with knowledge of the project. A white paper for the initiative, reviewed by The New York Times, said it would include a new cryptocurrency called $WLFI that would be sold to the public.

On its official X and Telegram accounts, World Liberty Financial said the project aims to drive “mass adoption of stablecoins,” a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a constant value of $1. A person briefed on the project described it as similar to an existing service called Instadapp, an application that allows users to manage their investments across various crypto platforms.

Several members of the Trump family have business roles, according to a list of team members included in the white paper. Mr. Trump's title is “Chief Crypto Advocate.” Barron Trump, his 18-year-old son, is listed as the project's “DeFi visionary,” a reference to the branch of crypto known as decentralized finance. Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have each been described as “Web 3 Ambassadors”.

A disclaimer at the end of the document says the platform is not owned or operated by Mr Trump or his family, although family members may receive compensation from the project's developers. (The white paper was previously reported by CoinDesk.)

In addition to Trump, the group overseeing World Liberty Financial includes a family friend and an assortment of digital currency enthusiasts with no track record of running high-profile crypto businesses.

Steve Witkoff, a real estate magnate and close friend of Mr. Trump, and his son Zach are both involved with World Liberty Financial, the white paper said. The elder Mr. Witkoff was playing golf with Mr. Trump on Sunday when the US Secret Service foiled an apparent assassination attempt on the former president at his golf course in Palm Beach, Fla.

Behind the scenes, Steve Witkoff has taken a hands-on role, according to a person familiar with the plan. He envisioned the project in part as a way to give Barron Trump some experience with entrepreneurship, the person said, and steer him away from Memecoin, a scandal-plagued part of the crypto industry. A spokesman for Mr. Witkoff declined to comment.

During the X event on Monday, Mr. Trump described Barron Trump as a crypto enthusiast. “He's got four wallets or something,” Mr Trump said. “He knows these things inside out.”

Chase Hero, a crypto entrepreneur who calls himself an Internet “dirtbag,” is another leader of the initiative, according to the white paper and two people with knowledge of the project. (Mr. Hero sometimes spells his last name “Hero.”)

Mr Hero, 39, said that as a young man, he was a habitual drug offender and was imprisoned, but later turned his life around and became wealthy. In 2022, Mr. Hero appeared at a crypto seminar hosted by Jordan Belfort, who inspired the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street.” At the event, Mr. Hero called stablecoins “the greatest innovation since sliced ​​bread” and said his favorite coin was “touchy and crazy and almost borderline a Ponzi scheme.”

Over the years, Mr. Herro has worked closely with another entrepreneur, Zachary Folkman, who is also listed in the World Liberty Financial White Paper. In 2010, Mr. Folkman started a company called Date Hotter Girls, which offered seminars on “attracting, dating and keeping women of beauty and quality.”

Mr. Folkman and Mr. Hero ran several business ventures together, first in the US Virgin Islands and later in Puerto Rico. Both have homes in Puerto Rico, which has become a haven for crypto enthusiasts attracted by generous tax breaks, according to public records. Mr. Folkman is listed in a government database as one of thousands of people living in Puerto Rico who receive tax breaks.

Before they set up shop in Puerto Rico, Mr. Folkman and Mr. Hero ran an Internet advertising and media company in the U.S. Virgin Islands, The Nexus Group, which received similar business tax breaks. Mr. Hero ran a separate crypto trading business there called Pacer Capital.

In the US Virgin Islands, Mr. Hero and Mr. Folkman worked with Alex Golubitsky, a lawyer listed in the white paper as legal counsel to World Liberty Financial.

In an email, Mr. Golubitsky said he could not discuss crypto ventures. But he referred to Mr. Herro and Mr. Folkman as “talented tech entrepreneurs.”