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Former President Donald Trump is taking his courtship of the crypto industry to the next level.
In an X Spaces livestream on Monday night, the Republican presidential nominee spoke with internet personality and Web3 influencer Farokh Sarmad for about 30 minutes about the "state of crypto."
"If we don't do it, China will do it," Trump told Sarmad, referring to making cryptocurrency mainstream. "We have to be the biggest and the best.
Ahead of the Monday livestream, Trump said he would use the event to launch his latest business venture: a new crypto-banking platform called World Liberty Financial.
But it was ultimately Chase Herro, the self-described "dirtbag of the internet," and Zach Witkoff, the son of Trump's longtime friend and donor, Steve Witkoff, who discussed World Liberty Financial, more than an hour and a half into the event.
In addition to Herro and Witkoff, Trump's sons, Donald Jr., Eric, and Barron, are also involved in the venture, a cryptocurrency business focused on decentralized finance, known as "DeFi."
The extent of the former president's involvement in World Liberty Financial is still unclear, though a person familiar with the project told CNBC that Trump hasn't been very involved thus far. The New York Times reports that the elder Trump holds the title of "Chief Crypto Advocate."
Details about the company remain scarce. According to CNBC, a small group of Trump family members and insiders will hold 70% of equity in the startup. The startup would allow users to borrow and lend crypto while paying original investors fees.
Trump's sons Eric and Don Jr. have been teasing the launch of World Liberty Financial for weeks, posting about it on X and linking to a Telegram page with info about the project.
The venture comes as Trump has been ratcheting up his efforts to get in with the crypto crowd — a courtship that, as BI's Kenneth Niemeyer wrote in July, has led him to become a bonafide crypto stan.
Back in May, while hocking NFTs featuring his mugshot, Trump criticized President Joe Biden and Democrats for being "very much against" crypto while poising himself as the crypto candidate.
During the Monday livestream, Trump credited his changing perspective on crypto to his NFTs' positive response. The Republican nominee also cited his three sons for helping him learn about the digital currency.
Trump called cryptocurrency "the steel industry of 100 years ago" at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville in July. He also promised the crowd of crypto industry leaders that he would "ensure that the United States will be the crypto capital of the planet and the bitcoin superpower of the world" and even create a "strategic national bitcoin stockpile."
"I want to make sure it's good and solid and everything else, but I'm good with it," the former president said at the time. "If you're in favor of crypto, you'd better vote for Trump."
As November draws nearer, Trump is betting that all his crypto wooing will pay off at the ballot box.
During the Monday livestream, Trump took a scaremongering approach, encouraging crypto lovers to vote for him lest they court hostility from the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
"If for some reason bad, bad things happen and we don't win the election, those people that were under investigation…in the crypto world, they'll be living in hell," Trump said.
Analysts estimated that if Trump wins, bitcoin could surge to $125,000 by the year's end, while a win for Kamala Harris could cause the currency to surge to just $75,000.
But Trump hasn't always been so into crypto.
While in office, Trump said he was "not a fan" of crypto and that its "value is highly volatile and based on thin air." In 2021, Trump told Fox Business on two occasions that it "just seems like a scam" and that investing in cryptocurrencies is a "disaster waiting to happen."
