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Former President Donald Trump, his sons, and their business partners provided a new look at their upcoming cryptocurrency project, World Liberty Financial, on Monday evening.
It’s the latest appeal that Trump and his family have made to the crypto lobby, as the Republican presidential nominee courts enthusiasts and doubles down on his belief that the U.S. needs to become the “crypto capital” of the world. In recent months, Trump — who once looked down on crypto — has called for a strategic national Bitcoin reserve, declared all Bitcoin should be mined in the U.S., and launched his fourth collection of non fungible tokens.
“Crypto is one of those things we have to do,” Trump said on a two-hour livestream hosted on X (META+0.85%), formerly Twitter. “Whether we like it or not, I have to do it.”
World Liberty Financial has been around for a while now; Eric Trump and Donald Trump, Jr., have been teasing the project for almost a month on social media, although there’s not much known about it yet, including an official launch date.
The project includes a new crypto token, WLFI. Twenty percent of those tokens will be allotted to the founding team, while 17% of the tokens will be set aside for user rewards and the remaining 63% of the coins will be sold to the general public. A leaked draft white paper for the project had planned to give the founder’s 70% of the tokens, which drew criticism and concerns that World Liberty Financial could be a scam.
Although Trump is listed as the project’s “chief crypto advocate,” he didn’t comment directly on the project Monday, instead primarily discussing immigration and the two recent attempts to assassinate him, as well as the broader presidential election. Eric and Donald Trump, Jr., are given the title of “web3 ambassador.”
Barron Trump, the youngest of Trump’s sons, is reportedly listed as the project’s “DeFi visionary.” The former president on Monday said his son owns “four wallets or something,” adding that “he knows this stuff inside out.”
The operational side of the project is led by Zachary Folkman, the project’s head of operations, and Chase Herro, who will oversee data and strategies.
Herro previously co-founded Dough Finance, a blockchain app that was recently compromised in a hacking incident. Folkman’s background includes running a company named Date Hotter Girls LLC and creating YouTube seminars focused on how to pick up women.
Real estate investor Steve Witkoff has also taken a role in the project and said on the livestream that his son introduced him to Herro and Folkman. Witkoff then introduced the pair to the Trump family, he said Monday.
—Vinamrata Chaturvedi contributed to this story