World Liberty's Rapid Ascent From Fledgling Startup to International Force

The range of conflicts of interest trailing the company: World Liberty has directly benefited from Mr. Trump's official actions

The clock is ticking down on Donald Trump's presidency, but his administration is showing no signs of slowing down its rapid conversion to the crypto cause.

Last week, the president filled a final batch of administration posts with sympathizers to the crypto cause, including by appointing a former adviser to industry players as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, the Justice Department recently disbanded a crypto crimes task force, continuing a broader unwinding of Biden-era scrutiny of the industry.

The president’s son, Eric Trump, has also been investing in crypto startups, according to a recent report by The Times.

Together, these developments highlight the remarkable speed and scope of the Trump administration's turnabout on crypto. At the start of his presidency, Trump was dismissive of cryptocurrencies, famously declaring in 2019 that he wasn't "a big fan of Bitcoin." But over the past few years, the administration has increasingly embraced the industry, cutting taxes for crypto traders, appointing crypto enthusiasts to key government roles, and even announcing plans for the U.S. to launch its own digital currency.

This shift in attitude has been aided in part by the rapid ascent of World Liberty Financial, a crypto startup that went from relative obscurity to becoming a major international force.

A Times examination of World Liberty's rapid rise — and of Trump's conversion from crypto skeptic to industry cheerleader — has highlighted the range of conflicts of interest trailing the company.

World Liberty has directly benefited from Trump's official actions, such as his announcement of a federal crypto stockpile that would include a digital currency the firm has invested in. The president's announcement caused a temporary jump in the value of World Liberty's holdings.

World Liberty has sold its cryptocurrency to investors abroad, including in Israel and Hong Kong, establishing a new avenue for foreign businesses to try to curry favor with the Trump administration.

Several investors in World Liberty's coin managed firms that the federal government accused of wrongdoing. They include an executive whose fraud case was suspended after he invested millions of dollars in World Liberty. Other investors and business partners, some of whom haven't been publicly identified before, are looking to expand in ways that will require the Trump administration's approval.

World Liberty proposed swapping cryptocurrencies with at least five start-ups, and often used the Trump name to solicit steep payments as part of the deals. Even in an industry with a disreputable history, the deals raised alarm among veteran executives.

“It’s a black spot on our industry,” said Andre Cronje, a founder of SonicLabs, a crypto firm that turned down World Liberty's pitch. Anyone who accepted would “obviously think they’re going to make money because it’s the officially endorsed Trump project.”

A spokesman for World Liberty, David Wachsman, disputed that any of the company's deals constituted a “one-sided payment for services rendered.” But he acknowledged that the company had engaged in “mutual investment deals,” and said that its deal-making had resulted in “thoughtful, strategic exchanges between parties who stand to mutually benefit.”

"It would also be false, absurd and dangerous to suggest that investments or partnerships with World Liberty Financial were conducted as some sort of political quid pro quo," he added. "To the best of our knowledge, never has an investor or partner requested any political favoritism. Nor would we ever entertain such a possibility."

The story of World Liberty Financial began in 2017 with the founding of a blockchain project called DePay. One of DePay's founders was Andre Cronje, a veteran programmer who had helped to build several successful DeFi protocols.

DePay aimed to create a decentralized payment network that would allow users to send and receive cryptocurrency payments directly, without needing to go through a bank or other third party. The project quickly gained attention in the crypto community, and it soon secured investments from several prominent venture capitalists.

In early 2018, DePay began to experience difficulties. The project faced technical setbacks, and it struggled to keep pace with the rapid evolution of the DeFi landscape. By mid-2018, DePay had largely ceased operations.

But out of the ashes of DePay arose World Liberty Financial. The company was founded by a group of crypto enthusiasts who were looking to capitalize on the growing mainstream interest in cryptocurrencies.

World Liberty Financial's flagship product was a cryptocurrency called WLF Token. The company sold WLF Tokens to investors in several countries, including Israel, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The company also announced plans to develop a suite of DeFi products, including a decentralized exchange and a lending protocol.

As World Liberty Financial expanded, it began to attract the attention of the Trump administration. In 2019, the administration appointed several crypto enthusiasts to key government roles, including filling the post of Treasury Secretary with Steven Mnuchin, a venture capitalist who had invested in several crypto startups.

The administration also took steps to reduce taxes on