Why Trump’s Crypto Business Wants to Become a Bank – Mother Jones
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7 hours ago
Why Trump’s Crypto Business Wants to Become a Bank
Sen. Elizabeth Warren decries the first family’s latest crypto play as a “clear conflict of interest and corruption.”
Russ Choma
Reporter
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In a move that Sen. Elizabeth Warren has decried as a “clear conflict of interest and corruption,” one of the Trump family’s most lucrative businesses is on its way to becoming a bank. And it’s set to be regulated by a government entity whose leader was appointed by, you guessed it, President Donald Trump.
In August, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency—one of three major bank regulators in the United States—declared that Trump’s controversial crypto company, World Liberty Financial, could begin the process of establishing itself as a bank. This creates a new level of conflict of interest for the president and his family, demonstrating how Trump has reshaped federal government policy to embrace his fellow crypto entrepreneurs.
The Trumps’ crypto odyssey allegedly stems from their dissatisfaction with banks following the 2020 election. “I never thought I’d fall into the world of crypto until every bank began cancelling us for absolutely no reason other than the fact that my father was in politics,” Eric Trump told Fox News in 2024.
“They came after us viciously. It wasn’t until that time that I realized how important crypto was.”
In reality, many big banks had long refused to do business with Donald Trump due to his past bankruptcies. Following the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, some banks did, in fact, close Trump’s accounts. Trump and his sons founded World Liberty Financial in 2024, claiming it was needed because banks and banking regulation were broken. They said the company would offer decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions, allowing users to conduct financial activities on a blockchain instead of through traditional Wall Street institutions.
“So you know, just very excited, entered the crypto space with this product, really looking to upend a lot of the traditional finance markets that we have viewed as very broken,” Donald Trump Jr. told an interviewer in October 2024.
The company hasn’t significantly disrupted traditional banking, however. Its primary offering is a stablecoin called USD1, designed to maintain a value of $1. Stablecoins are useful for moving money between different cryptocurrencies or partners without using US dollars directly.