Trump to unveil crypto project amid scams and fears of ‘huge embarrassment’

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Former US President Donald Trump plans to unveil a brand new crypto project next week that has already been plagued by scams and targeted by cyber criminals.

The Republican candidate will reveal the World Liberty Financial project from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday, claiming it will revolutionise finance and “leave the slow and outdated big banks behind”.

The project is being led by his two sons, Donald Jr. and Eric Trump, though little is known about what the venture will entail.

In a recent interview with the New York Post, Eric Trump described it as “digital real estate” – referring to either the creation of virtual property within the metaverse, or the digital tokenisation of real-world assets in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

“It’s equitable. It’s collateral anyone can get access to and do so instantly,” he said. “I don’t know if people realise what a shake up that is for the world of banking and finance. I hope we can help change that.”

Earlier this month, tens of thousands of Donald Trump’s followers were tricked into joining a fake group on the messaging app Telegram that was claiming to offer free cryptocurrency giveaways from the Trump-backed platform.

The group has since been removed, though ads promoting the scam giveaways still continue to appear for its 150,000 members. Telegram did not respond to a request for comment from The Independent.

The X accounts of Mr Trump’s daughter Tiffany and daughter-in-law Lara were also targeted by cyber criminals, who hijacked their profiles in order to share fake links for the project.

Nic Carter, a Trump supporter and noted figure within the crypto industry, advised the former president to stop the launch of World Liberty Financial, writing on X: “At best it’s an unnecessary distraction, at worst it’s a huge embarrassment and source of (additional) legal trouble.”

The project’s official Telegram channel revealed that the launch event for World Liberty Financial will be live streamed on X at 8pm ET on Monday (1am BST on Tuesday).

“Get ready as we unveil our plan to Make Finance Great Again,” the Telegram post stated. “This is a landmark event you won’t want to miss! Let’s make history together.”

Mr Trump has pitched himself as the pro-crypto candidate in the upcoming presidential elections, recently appearing at a bitcoin conference to outline his plans for the industry if elected.

Having previously dismissed the world’s leading cryptocurrency as a “scam”, Mr Trump told the crowd at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville that he would create a “national bitcoin stockpile” from seized criminal funds, as well as “immediately appoint a bitcoin and crypto presidential advisory council”.