'Trump's Crypto Supporters React with Disapproval to Family's Startup: "A Huge Mistake"'
The upcoming crypto venture is drawing attention from what seem to be hackers and attempted scams in the lead-up to its launch.
TroibNews 
Donald Trump’s sons are looking to leverage their father's growing relationship with the cryptocurrency industry into a new family venture. However, the troubled rollout of this initiative has instead created a potential political liability for the former president.
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, Trump's eldest sons, have been hinting at their plans for a cryptocurrency startup named World Liberty Financial for several weeks. Unfortunately, the launch has faced setbacks due to a spate of apparent scams that have redirected supporters to fraudulent sites and compromised the social media accounts of other Trump family members.
These issues have begun to alarm some allies in the cryptocurrency community, who caution that the project presents unnecessary political risks and may cast a negative light on the industry.
“This is a huge mistake,” remarked Nic Carter, a Trump supporter and founding partner at the crypto-focused venture capital firm Castle Island Ventures. “It looks like Trump’s inner circle is just cashing in on his recent embrace of crypto in a kind of naive way, and frankly it looks like they’re burning a lot of the goodwill that’s been built with the industry so far.”
The unfolding events highlight the risks tied to Trump’s increasing affinity for the cryptocurrency world, which he has pledged to support with extensive favorable policies if elected. Government watchdogs have raised concerns about the potential conflicts of interest arising from the overlap between politics, policy, and the Trump family’s business dealings as Democrats seek to label him a “con artist” in the lead-up to the presidential election. This scrutiny comes amid ongoing criticism of major cryptocurrency firms for scams and consumer exploitation.
Details surrounding the Trump brothers’ crypto initiative remain under wraps, but Trump began marketing World Liberty Financial's upcoming launch on social media last month after it established an official channel on the messaging platform Telegram.
Shortly thereafter, it seems that scammers took advantage of the situation. The X accounts belonging to Republican National Committee Co-Chair Lara Trump and Tiffany Trump were reportedly compromised, allowing unauthorized users to share links to a fraudulent site for the project containing fake information. World Liberty posted a warning on its official Telegram channel about the hacked accounts and urged users to avoid the posted links. Tens of thousands of users have been misled into joining a separate unofficial Telegram channel masquerading as World Liberty Financial.
Zak Folkman, a representative for World Liberty, stated in an interview that the group is “building a world-class decentralized finance platform with the absolute best of the best in the industry.” He confirmed that they had reported the unauthorized posts and the fake Telegram channel to the respective platforms and clarified that Lara Trump and Tiffany Trump are not involved in the project.
“We take security very seriously and put it first and foremost, above anything,” he emphasized, adding that World Liberty collaborates “with the top auditing firms and security specialists in the world.”
Experts point out that the initial rollout of the crypto venture made it vulnerable to scams.
“It’s a very typical playbook of smaller operators or more amateur operations in the crypto space to try to generate a lot of hype before revealing the details,” noted Austin Campbell, an adjunct professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business with prior experience leading risk and portfolio management at the crypto firm Paxos. “That makes them susceptible to all sorts of nonsense.”
Official information regarding World Liberty remains limited. The cryptocurrency news outlet CoinDesk reported that a white paper for the initiative describes “a borrowing and lending service strikingly similar to Dough Finance, a recently hacked blockchain app built by four people listed as World Liberty Financial team members.” The Trump brothers' venture is also set to introduce a new crypto token, per CoinDesk.
Folkman clarified that the startup aims to create a "protocol that gives power to the average person to be able to take control of all of the amazing opportunities decentralized finance offers," but he declined to provide specifics about the service.
The early developments have not allayed the concerns of skeptics, including those within the crypto advocacy community.
One representative from the industry in Washington, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of criticizing Trump, voiced a “laundry list of concerns." A primary issue is that this initiative could reflect poorly on the industry while advocates work to push for policy changes that would enhance the sector's legitimacy.
“Maybe it doesn’t move the needle for most people, but if this thing is hacked or regular folks lose money on it or it opens up the door for the SEC to investigate the team, it only looks like it has downside risk,” Carter explained. “It looks to have very little upside risk.”
Frederick R Cook contributed to this report for TROIB News
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, Trump's eldest sons, have been hinting at their plans for a cryptocurrency startup named World Liberty Financial for several weeks. Unfortunately, the launch has faced setbacks due to a spate of apparent scams that have redirected supporters to fraudulent sites and compromised the social media accounts of other Trump family members.
These issues have begun to alarm some allies in the cryptocurrency community, who caution that the project presents unnecessary political risks and may cast a negative light on the industry.
“This is a huge mistake,” remarked Nic Carter, a Trump supporter and founding partner at the crypto-focused venture capital firm Castle Island Ventures. “It looks like Trump’s inner circle is just cashing in on his recent embrace of crypto in a kind of naive way, and frankly it looks like they’re burning a lot of the goodwill that’s been built with the industry so far.”
The unfolding events highlight the risks tied to Trump’s increasing affinity for the cryptocurrency world, which he has pledged to support with extensive favorable policies if elected. Government watchdogs have raised concerns about the potential conflicts of interest arising from the overlap between politics, policy, and the Trump family’s business dealings as Democrats seek to label him a “con artist” in the lead-up to the presidential election. This scrutiny comes amid ongoing criticism of major cryptocurrency firms for scams and consumer exploitation.
Details surrounding the Trump brothers’ crypto initiative remain under wraps, but Trump began marketing World Liberty Financial's upcoming launch on social media last month after it established an official channel on the messaging platform Telegram.
Shortly thereafter, it seems that scammers took advantage of the situation. The X accounts belonging to Republican National Committee Co-Chair Lara Trump and Tiffany Trump were reportedly compromised, allowing unauthorized users to share links to a fraudulent site for the project containing fake information. World Liberty posted a warning on its official Telegram channel about the hacked accounts and urged users to avoid the posted links. Tens of thousands of users have been misled into joining a separate unofficial Telegram channel masquerading as World Liberty Financial.
Zak Folkman, a representative for World Liberty, stated in an interview that the group is “building a world-class decentralized finance platform with the absolute best of the best in the industry.” He confirmed that they had reported the unauthorized posts and the fake Telegram channel to the respective platforms and clarified that Lara Trump and Tiffany Trump are not involved in the project.
“We take security very seriously and put it first and foremost, above anything,” he emphasized, adding that World Liberty collaborates “with the top auditing firms and security specialists in the world.”
Experts point out that the initial rollout of the crypto venture made it vulnerable to scams.
“It’s a very typical playbook of smaller operators or more amateur operations in the crypto space to try to generate a lot of hype before revealing the details,” noted Austin Campbell, an adjunct professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business with prior experience leading risk and portfolio management at the crypto firm Paxos. “That makes them susceptible to all sorts of nonsense.”
Official information regarding World Liberty remains limited. The cryptocurrency news outlet CoinDesk reported that a white paper for the initiative describes “a borrowing and lending service strikingly similar to Dough Finance, a recently hacked blockchain app built by four people listed as World Liberty Financial team members.” The Trump brothers' venture is also set to introduce a new crypto token, per CoinDesk.
Folkman clarified that the startup aims to create a "protocol that gives power to the average person to be able to take control of all of the amazing opportunities decentralized finance offers," but he declined to provide specifics about the service.
The early developments have not allayed the concerns of skeptics, including those within the crypto advocacy community.
One representative from the industry in Washington, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of criticizing Trump, voiced a “laundry list of concerns." A primary issue is that this initiative could reflect poorly on the industry while advocates work to push for policy changes that would enhance the sector's legitimacy.
“Maybe it doesn’t move the needle for most people, but if this thing is hacked or regular folks lose money on it or it opens up the door for the SEC to investigate the team, it only looks like it has downside risk,” Carter explained. “It looks to have very little upside risk.”
Frederick R Cook contributed to this report for TROIB News
