How Donald Trump's Crypto Dealings Push the Bounds of Corruption

By Kyle Chayka

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 they purchase, the greater their voice will be. 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 flow into his hands.

The above description actually reflects the working mechanism of a new cryptocurrency being launched by World Liberty Financial, a company linked to 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 like raffle tickets, and another "stablecoin" called USD1 corresponds to "magic beans". World Liberty Financial is involved in the emerging field of "decentralized finance", in which cryptocurrency tools enable users to transfer, store and borrow funds without the traditional, regulated banking ecosystem. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that are pegged to the value of a single currency, such as one dollar, but they don't always stay stable—for example, the once successful stablecoin Terra lost its peg and collapsed in 2022. As long as stablecoins are not recognized 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 receives 75% of its subsidiaries’ net income. (The remaining 25% goes to Axiom Management Group, which is linked to 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 quickly after they get off the ground. In 2022, he launched Trump digital trading cards, a series of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) 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 a higher price, essentially a pyramid scheme. Trump Meme Coin ($TRUMP) consists of one 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 Trump's 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 Trump National Golf Club in Washington, DC, which actually builds a new channel for political donations; 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 access 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 Trump's 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 Trump's attention on tariffs