Latest news with #Trump-affiliated
21 hours ago
- Business
Trump's sons distance themselves from new Trump-branded crypto venture
A digital asset company has collaborated with the firm behind President Donald Trump's $TRUMP meme coin to launch what it's calling the "Official $TRUMP Wallet" -- but the president's sons, who run Trump's crypto businesses, say they have no involvement with the offering. In a post on X Tuesday, Jack Lu, the CEO of a digital asset marketplace called Magic Eden, said his firm had collaborated with GetTrumpMemes -- the firm behind the $TRUMP meme coin -- on $TRUMP Wallet, a digital app that allows users to conduct financial transactions. Lu said the venture would allow users to trade the $TRUMP coin and other cryptocurrencies. But within hours, Eric Trump wrote on social media that "I run @Trump and I know nothing about this project!" Donald Trump Jr. added that he "has zero involvement with this wallet product," and teased plans for a separate digital asset wallet under a different Trump-affiliated crypto firm, World Liberty Financial. Despite those disavowals, the $TRUMP Wallet that launched Tuesday claimed to be the "First and Only Crypto Wallet for True Trump Fans." "Our partnership with the $TRUMP team to build @TrumpWalletApp represents our commitment to onboarding mainstream audience deeper into crypto," Lu wrote on X. ABC News has reached out to Magic Eden for clarification on the venture. As of Tuesday afternoon, X -- the social media company run by Trump ally Elon Musk -- had suspended the account for @TrumpWalletApp. It was not immediately clear why the account was removed. The $TRUMP Wallet website contains little information about the platform itself, but invites visitors to sign up for a waitlist ahead of a formal launch at some later date. Joining the waitlist also allows users to enter a sweepstakes for a share of $1 million worth of $TRUMP rewards. Once a crypto skeptic, Trump and his family have fully immersed themselves in the cryptocurrency marketplace in recent months, developing not only the $TRUMP meme coin -- a type of digital currency that's often based on an internet meme -- but also a bitcoin mining firm, a stablecoin firm, and a crypto reserve. Last month Trump held a black tie event for the winners of a contest that awarded invitations to the top investors in his $TRUMP coin -- with at least some of the funds flowing directly into the Trump family's coffers. Critics have raised concerns about the Trump administration's regulatory role over cryptocurrencies while the president stands to personally benefit from cryptocurrency ventures. Asked Tuesday about the potential conflicts of interest in the Trump family's nascent crypto empire, Donald Trump Jr. said on CNBC that the family "got into [crypto] out of necessity," claiming the Trump family had been "de-banked." "We got into politics and all of a sudden [the banks] wouldn't take our call," he said. "We went all in on a concept that makes total sense because we'd actually been the recipients of how quickly that can be shut off."
CNBC
a day ago
- Business
- CNBC
$TRUMP crypto wallet launches for president's meme token
Magic Eden, best known as a non-fungible token marketplace, has quietly partnered with the team behind President Donald Trump's meme token to launch an official $TRUMP-branded cryptocurrency wallet. Dubbed the $TRUMP Wallet, the product will feature the president's name and likeness, support trading of $TRUMP and other digital assets including bitcoin. A waitlist for the wallet opened Tuesday at ahead of a broader launch slated for later this summer, according to a Magic Eden spokesperson. Billed as "the first and only crypto wallet for true Trump fans," the project was promoted on X with the promise of a share in $1 million in $TRUMP rewards. Users who sign up and refer friends can climb the waitlist, Magic Eden said in a statement to CNBC. The gamified promotion is the latest attempt to drive inflows into Trump-affiliated crypto ventures — and it deepens the president's growing ties to the digital asset industry. Trump's expanding crypto portfolio already includes NFTs, a stablecoin, a decentralized finance platform with its own virtual token, meme coins named after him and the First Lady, and plans for crypto ETFs through Truth Social's new financial arm, TruthFi. Magic Eden, whose CEO attended Trump's recent fundraiser dinner for winners of a previous $TRUMP coin contest, appears to be building the wallet on top of Slingshot Finance — a self-custodial trading app it acquired in April. Slingshot's platform features meme tokens like BONK and FARTCOIN and does not directly collect user identity information. Instead, identity checks are handled by MoonPay, its fiat on-ramp provider. It remains unclear whether the Trump Wallet will require its own know-your-customer (KYC) procedures — or how revenue and responsibilities will be split between Magic Eden and Trump-affiliated entities. CNBC reached out to the $TRUMP token team to ask about the terms of the partnership, potential revenue-sharing, and whether the wallet would require KYC, but did not immediately hear back.
The Print
5 days ago
- Business
- The Print
IAF chief's frustration over defence procurement delays is valid. It should be a national wake-up call
Pakistan's Bitcoin Reserve and AI energy allocation, severe power shortages notwithstanding, is a shrewd geopolitical move. Partnering with Trump-affiliated World Liberty Financial shows Islamabad is leveraging crypto to gain influence with him. It's a dangerous blurring of personal business and governance. Pakistan sure knows how to play up to Trump. IAF chief's frustration over defence procurement delays is valid. It should be a national wake-up call IAF chief's frustration over persistent delays and broken promises in defence procurement should serve as a national wake-up call. A piecemeal approach to critical military acquisitions undermines operational readiness. What India needs is accountability, efficiency, and urgency. A strong and modern military isn't about seeking war—it's about deterring one.
NBC News
27-05-2025
- Business
- NBC News
Trump Media says it's raising $2.5 billion to buy bitcoin
LAS VEGAS — Trump Media announced Tuesday a $2.5 billion raise from institutional investors to bankroll one of the largest bitcoin treasury allocations by a public company. Shares of the company fell about 10% following the news. It's the latest and most ambitious move in its evolution from a free-speech social platform to a financial services player. The deal includes $1.5 billion in common stock and $1 billion in convertible notes, with proceeds earmarked for the purchase of bitcoin, which the company will now hold as a core treasury asset. the company said it has subscription agreements with about 50 institutional investors. The company also confirmed the bitcoin will be held with Anchorage Digital and — the same platform that recently inked a deal to help Trump Media launch its first exchange-traded funds. The announcement comes as bitcoin nears record highs and the year's biggest gathering of digital asset enthusiasts gets underway on the Las Vegas Strip: Bitcoin 2025. The conference helped solidify President Donald Trump 's image as the country's first ' crypto president.' This year, it's a full-court press from the Trump White House at the conference, with Vice President JD Vance, Don and Eric Trump, crypto czar David Sacks, and other top officials all attending. Trump Media's stock remains volatile, with shares down nearly 30% this year so far. The company has a market cap of about $5.3 billion, despite reporting just $3.6 million in revenue and a $400 million loss in 2024. Trump indirectly owns more than 114 million shares of Trump Media through a revocable trust. Devin Nunes, the company's CEO and a former California congressman, called bitcoin an 'apex instrument of financial freedom' and said this was just the first of many 'crown jewel' acquisitions the firm would pursue. He framed the move as a defensive strategy, saying it would help protect the company from what he described as ongoing 'discrimination by financial institutions' against conservative businesses. The firm has already inked a partnership with to bring a series of ETFs and digital asset products to market later this year, pending regulatory approval. Those funds will include baskets of crypto like bitcoin and native token, cronos, alongside traditional securities. They will be branded under Trump Media and offered to global investors across major brokerage platforms and on the app, which has more than 140 million users worldwide. The move deepens Trump's crypto footprint: World Liberty Financial, another Trump-affiliated entity, has already amassed a significant crypto stockpile, and the president signed an executive order earlier this year designed to establish a bitcoin reserve and a separate crypto stockpile for the federal government. The expansion into financial services builds on rising Republican anger over perceived banking discrimination against conservatives. Crypto industry leaders have also been testifying on Capitol Hill about the industry's struggle with debanking during President Joe Biden' s administration. Trump himself voiced frustration with Bank of America and JPMorgan executives during a recent appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, accusing them of 'locking out' conservative clients. The launch of along with the growing popularity of Trump-linked cryptocurrencies, appears to be the private sector response. The $2.5 billion bitcoin treasury move also follows a growing trend among politically-aligned businesses that are converting their corporate treasuries into bitcoin-heavy vehicles. It's a strategy popularized by Michael Saylor's MicroStrategy in 2020 — but now turbocharged by Trump's political movement and crypto allies. Jack Mallers is looking to rival Strategy with a new bitcoin company backed by Tether and SoftBank, and David Bailey, the architect behind another Trump-linked bitcoin play — Nakamoto Holdings — recently led a $710 million merger with healthcare firm KindlyMD, which will pivot from holistic opioid recovery to a crypto-first strategy. Bailey, a trusted crypto advisor to the Trump administration, described the play as: 'Strategy, squared.' 'Our total focus is on increasing the bitcoin per share,' Bailey previously told CNBC, outlining plans to acquire bitcoin-native companies across every major capital market.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's 4,000 meme-coins-per-plate crypto dinner is an American embarrassment
On Thursday, President Donald Trump will sit down for an intimate evening at his Northern Virginia golf club with 220 of his favorite people in the world: a group of cryptocurrency speculators who have spent an estimated $148 million on Trump's eponymous memecoin, making the president and his associates millions of dollars in the process. Tesla's Cybertruck is officially a flop Housing market shift: 80 major markets that are seeing falling home prices House Republicans just gutted the IRA. What happened to all the supposed holdouts? Even by Trump's standards, this dinner will be the culmination of one of the most cartoonish episodes of executive-branch graft in recent memory. Last month, Trump announced that at the end of a predetermined period, he would host an 'unforgettable Gala DINNER' for the top 220 holders of $TRUMP, allowing winners to discuss the future of the industry with the 'Crypto President' himself. The top 25 token holders would also get to attend an 'Exclusive Reception' with Trump, along with a 'Special VIP White House Tour.' (Hours after the contest went live, its website was quietly edited to promise the top 25 finishers only a 'Special VIP Tour,' with no location specified. It remains unclear whether that event will indeed take place at the White House, or at a golf resort facility of the president's choice.) The contest's organizer, a Trump-affiliated LLC called Fight Fight Fight, maintained an online leaderboard of those jockeying for position during the sweepstakes, which ended on May 12. The website also includes helpful information about the dress code (black tie optional) and the plus-one policy (none, because 'if you earned a seat at the table, it's because you earned it'). For Trump, the logistical details were far less important than the chance to juice the market for $TRUMP, which had cratered after launching in January but then spiked by more than 50% when he announced the contest. In the two days that followed, the Trump Organization and its affiliates, which together control roughly 80% of the token's supply, took in nearly $1 million in trading fees; by the end of the sweepstakes, that number had jumped to $3 million, according to a Washington Post analysis. In all, the Post estimates that since the coin's debut four months ago, Trump and company have made $312 million from crypto sales and $43 million in fees. As it turns out, one of the perks of being the person in charge of U.S. cryptocurrency policy is the freedom to profit off of cryptocurrency without fear of meaningful consequences. The details of the frenzy to secure a spot on the leaderboard make clear just how for sale the federal government is right now. Making the top 220, according to Wired, required holding or buying more than 4,000 $TRUMP tokens worth about $55,000 altogether; those who made the VIP list held an average of 325,000 tokens worth a collective $4.3 million. Many of the people who made the cut made their purchases on exchanges that suggest they are non-U.S. residents who jumped at the chance to bend the U.S. president's ear in a semiprivate setting. Sure enough, although the leaderboard identifies winners only by username and alphanumeric crypto wallet address, among the confirmed attendees are Justin Sun, a Chinese crypto speculator who is, in a wild coincidence, trying to settle civil fraud charges with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission; an Australian crypto entrepreneur who hopes to pitch Trump on adopting an even more industry-friendly regulatory stance; and a to-be-determined representative of MemeCore, a Singapore-based crypto collective that told New York magazine that whomever it sends hopes to ask Trump, 'Are you a meme, or the result of one?' Fight Fight Fight calculated the value of contestants' holdings based on both the amount of $TRUMP in a wallet and the length of time they'd held it, thus rewarding early investors for their commitment to padding the president's bottom line. That said, earlier this month, the journalist Molly White found that of the wallets on the leaderboard at the time, 62% started buying $TRUMP only after he dangled the dinner invitation. Once acquiring a floundering memecoin came with a shot at a sit-down with the literal President of the United States, people who were previously uninterested apparently decided to reevaluate their investment priorities. Since the event is closed to the press, there will be no independent coverage of what Trump says to attendees, or what the attendees say to Trump, or even who the attendees are. The entire spectacle amounts to an off-the-record jam session between a bunch of people who have already gotten rich off crypto, brainstorming ways to keep getting rich off crypto. For Trump, the event is only the latest celebration of his whirlwind romance with crypto, which he spent years disparaging before realizing that embracing it could help fast-track his return to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He positioned himself as the pro-crypto candidate on the campaign trail last year, promising to create a national crypto stockpile and appoint industry luminaries to prominent administration roles. In another wild coincidence, around the same time, his adult sons helped launch World Liberty Financial, a crypto project structured to funnel 75% of revenue to the Trump family. WLF was basically a hedge against the results of the 2024 election: Even if Trump lost, he would at least have a new source of income to pay his legal bills. The fact that Trump won that election, of course, has made this alliance even more successful for everyone involved. In the hours before his inauguration, the price of Bitcoin spiked to nearly $110,000, then an all-time high. Demand for World Liberty Financial's coins exploded, too, especially from foreign investors whom federal law bars from giving directly to presidential campaigns or inaugural funds. (Sun, who will attend Thursday's dinner, has spent nearly $75 million on WLF tokens, making him its single largest known investor.) More recently, Abu Dhabi announced that it would use a WLF-issued stablecoin, USDI1, for its state-backed investment firm's $2 billion deal with the crypto exchange Binance—a choice that just so happens to put tens of millions of dollars in the Trump family's pockets. In an interview with the New York Times earlier this year, Eric Trump spoke of the family's pivot to crypto in glowing terms, describing World Liberty Financial as 'one of the more successful things we've ever done.' The numbers bear this out: In March, Fortune estimated that Trump's crypto holdings were worth $2.9 billion—not bad for an asset he was dismissing as 'not money,' 'highly volatile,' and 'based on thin air' a few years earlier. Pundits often describe Trump's involvement in crypto as 'unprecedented,' and in a sense, this is right: Given Washington's enduring obsessions with political scandals and conflicts of interest, traditionally, sitting presidents have not developed active side hustles in industries they have the power to regulate. But Trump has never cared about adhering to norms like this one, because he has always viewed the power of the office he holds primarily in terms of its potential to make him wealthier. He agreed to shake hands with a couple hundred crypto enthusiasts this week for the only reason he has ever done anything: He saw a chance to make money, and no one stopped him from taking it. This post originally appeared at to get the Fast Company newsletter: Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
