Latest news with #$TRUMP
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump family disown debut of crypto wallet: ‘I know nothing about this project!'
A splashy website featuring an illustration of Donald Trump, looking buff and pumping his fist in the air, appeared online on Tuesday. The image is the logo of one of Trump's digital currencies, and the website claims to be the 'Official $Trump Wallet', hawking a product that would allow customers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, primarily the president's own. The website prominently features the name of Trump's coin, $Trump, and invites people to join the waitlist to use the digital wallet. It was first noticed by the crypto newsletter Citation Needed. Magic Eden, an established cryptocurrency marketplace, said on the website that it had partnered with Trump's official digital coin team to create the wallet. The Twitter/X account for one of Trump's cryptocurrencies promoted the wallet product as well. 'The $TRUMP Wallet powered by @magiceden is coming soon. Join the $TRUMP community! reads a tweet from @TrumpMeme. Though the announcements bear the markers of legitimacy and official involvement, Trump's sons have called foul. 'The Trump Organization has zero involvement with this wallet product,' Donald Trump Jr quickly posted to the social media site X on Tuesday. Shortly after, Eric Trump posted: 'I run @Trump and I know nothing about this project!' Even Barron Trump chimed in saying: 'To be clear, our family has zero involvement with this wallet.' Trump Jr added that he had been 'working tirelessly' on launching an official wallet with another of the family's crypto businesses, World Liberty Financial, which Trump and his sons created last year. The cryptocurrency industry is known for frauds, scams and infighting. The latest spat between Magic Eden and World Liberty Financial appears to stem from a conflict between Trump's sons and Bill Zanker, who is a longtime business partner of Trump. Zanker runs the business that issued $Trump, Fight Fight Fight LLC, which is separate from the Trump Organization and World Liberty. The Trump Organization also owns a firm called CIC Digital, which, along with Fight Fight Fight, oversees and profits from the trade of the cryptocurrency while owning 80% of the coin's reserves, on paper worth about $2bn. On X, Magic Eden and Zanker's company both said the crypto wallet announced on Tuesday was indeed affiliated with Trump and powered by Magic Eden. Eric Trump maintained this was wrong. Later on Tuesday, he issued a warning on X: 'This project is not authorized by @Trump,' he wrote. '@MagicEden I would be extremely careful using our name in a project that has not been approved and is unknown to anyone in our organization.' Related: Top Democrat demands answers on Trump's major crypto investors Over the past several months, Trump's family and business partners have debuted a web of crypto business and digital currencies – those include a memecoin with the image of Trump pumping his fist, and a stablecoin that is designed to maintain a constant value of $1. Melania Trump even presented her own memecoin. In his first term, Trump was adamantly opposed to cryptocurrency, but has since performed an about-face. He has embraced the volatile industry, becoming the first major candidate to accept donations in cryptocurrency, speaking at a major crypto conference on the campaign trail. Trump has hosted industry leaders at the White House, and wined and dined the top holders of his cryptocurrency at his private golf club outside Washington DC. Trump's administration has also named the tech investor David Sacks his 'crypto czar', rolled back regulations on digital assets and halted a series of federal investigations into cryptocurrency firms. The White House, Magic Eden and Zanker did not return requests for comment. 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
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's sons deny involvement in ‘official' Trump memecoin wallet
A version of this story appeared in CNN Business' Nightcap newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. The Trump family is quickly learning what happens when you get into business with one of the internet's most bizarre sideshows. As a quick catch-up: On Tuesday, crypto researcher Molly White dropped a scoop that said the president was about to launch a Trump-branded cryptocurrency wallet to encourage people to trade his $TRUMP memecoin — yet another product expanding the Trump family's reach in digital assets. (For the uninitiated, a crypto wallet is a kind of personal online vault for storing digital assets like cryptocurrencies.) The project, White wrote, was being developed by the two Trump-family-run entities behind the memecoin in partnership with a crypto marketplace called Magic Eden. A few hours later, Magic Eden confirmed White's reporting and pushed out its own announcement of the 'Official $TRUMP Wallet by President Trump.' The official Trump memecoin website also confirmed the launch in a post on X. So far, just another day in crypto-land under Trump 2.0. The Trumps have raked in nearly $1 billion in paper gains (according to a Bloomberg estimate) through various ventures since the president's re-election in November, and the wallet seemed like just the latest project in an ever-expanding crypto empire. But then, the story took a turn. Trump's sons came out saying the family had 'zero involvement with this wallet product.' Donald Trump Jr. posted that he and his brother Eric knew 'nothing about it,' but that separately one of their other crypto ventures, World Liberty Financial, would be launching an official wallet 'soon.' Even Barron Trump, who rarely posts on social media, chimed in to say the family 'has zero involvement with this wallet.' It appears to be more than just a slight miscommunication. As White noted in an update to her story, Magic Eden is a relatively big player in crypto, 'so this is not a case of some nobody creating a fake project pretending to be an official Trump-affiliated app.' But it's far from clear how a run-of-the-mill wallet announcement turned into a public feud. A Trump Organization spokeswoman wrote in an email to CNN that 'Eric and Don had no prior knowledge on this project and there is no agreement with The Trump Organization.' Representatives for the Trump memecoin and Magic Eden didn't respond to CNN's request for comment Wednesday. Just to underscore the point: Eric Trump appeared to threaten Magic Eden with a lawsuit in a post Tuesday night, telling the company 'I would be extremely careful using our name in a project that has not been approved and is unknown to anyone in our organization.' (Eric also told the New York Times that the Trump family would legally challenge the creation of the 'Official $TRUMP Wallet.' This rift is surprising because of how closely connected the two sides are. On one side we've got the Trump boys, on the other the folks at Magic Eden and the official $TRUMP memecoin. Those two sides are hardly isolated strangers. The Trump boys run the Trump Organization, which has an affiliate called CIC Digital, which shares the majority of $TRUMP memecoins with another company called Fight Fight Fight . *Deep breath* Fight Fight Fight is led by a longtime Trump business associate named Bill Zanker, who co-wrote a book with the president in 2008 and has worked on several Trump-related crypto projects, and it runs the $TRUMP website. So, Zanker is not officially part of the Trump Org, but he is deeply connected to the president and the family's various crypto money-making operations. Zanker was the brains behind last month's memecoin dinner at Trump's DC-area golf club, Bloomberg's Olga Kharif wrote recently. 'Zanker's name is not on the website for the memecoin and he has avoided any comment on it,' Kharif writes. 'But on a Delaware corporate filing, Zanker is listed as the 'authorized person' for Fight Fight Fight LLC.' The $3 trillion crypto industry has been thrilled to get a cheerleader in the White House who's promised to push friendly legislation and defang the regulators that have historically held crypto at arm's length. But at the same time, many crypto executives and investors are holding their nose and looking the other way whenever Trump embraces some of the silly (at times scammy) elements of crypto-land. Like the memecoin, a joke-based subcategory of crypto that has no utility and is closely associated with 'rug-pull' scams. See also: the bitcoin strategic reserve and the pardoning of a notorious crypto criminal who was serving a life sentence for selling and distributing narcotics. Or the Trump $TRUMP dinner, widely criticized as selling access to the president. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back heavily on those criticisms during a press briefing hours before the May 22 dinner, telling reporters it was 'absurd for anyone to insinuate that this president is profiting off of the presidency.' This confusion over the crypto wallet rollout isn't helping anyone trying to pitch crypto as a sophisticated market that's ready for prime time.
CNBC
30-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
$TRUMP and other meme coins won't be protected by SEC, Commissioner Hester Peirce says
LAS VEGAS — Now that the SEC is out of the business of regulating meme coins, investors shouldn't expect any guidance on $TRUMP, according to Hester Peirce, one of the agency's veteran commissioners. The SEC said in February that it does not deem most meme coins securities under U.S. federal law. That took the crypto tokens out of its purview just weeks after President Donald Trump launched his own meme coin and saw it immediately soar in value, lifting his paper net worth by billions of dollars. Peirce told CNBC that it's a similar situation to when nonfungible tokens (NFTs) gained popularity in 2021. They weren't securities but they did rise and fall in value based on investor activity in the market. Peirce said the SEC missed an opportunity to announce publicly that the agency wasn't getting involved. "Here was something where I saw a lot of interest in this out in the world — in meme coins — and it made sense for us to say, 'People, if you are expecting that there's SEC protection around these, you should not expect that,'" Peirce said in an interview at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas. "You can package almost anything into a securities transaction. But generally, it's good for people to know, I should not be looking to the SEC for protection in this area." In other words, buy at your own risk. Since President Trump took office in January, the SEC has been rolling back its enforcement in crypto, taking a more industry-friendly approach to the asset class. It's a controversial strategy, as the president and his family deepen their involvement in crypto, profiting in a way that's led many Democratic lawmakers to declare a clear conflict of interest. The $TRUMP token, 80% of which is controlled by the Trump Organization and affiliated entities, has become the centerpiece of Trump's expanding crypto empire. Like most meme coins, the token has no underlying value. But after debuting in January, just ahead of the inauguration, $TRUMP soared to a $15 billion market cap, fueled by President Trump's social media posts declaring, "It's time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING!" Within days, the token lost most of its value. Still, the project creators get a fee for every trade. The White House previously told CNBC that Trump's assets are held in a trust managed by his children, and there are "no conflicts of interest." But Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, is among a growing list of Democratic lawmakers warning that the Trump family's crypto holdings may serve as a backdoor for foreign and corporate interests seeking access to the president. Meanwhile, crypto billionaires once targeted by regulators like the SEC are regaining political and financial influence. On Thursday, the SEC dropped its long-running lawsuit against Binance and founder Changpeng Zhao, bringing to an end one of the most aggressive crypto enforcement actions brought by former SEC Chair Gary Gensler. The agency had accused Binance of misleading investors, commingling customer funds, and allowing wealthy U.S. users to evade restrictions. After pleading guilty to federal money-laundering violations in November 2023, Zhao served just four months in prison and emerged with most of his crypto empire intact. Forbes now estimates his net worth at over $67 billion. Leading up to the dismissal, Zhao had deepened ties to Trump-affiliated networks. As Binance prepared to list USD1, a new stablecoin that funnels profits to Trump-aligned entities, Zhao disclosed that he had applied for a presidential pardon from Trump's Justice Department. Weeks later, Binance received a $2 billion capital injection into USD1 from an Emirati state fund. Peirce rejected the idea the SEC's actions are politically motivated. "We didn't have a clear set of rules," Peirce said, regarding the Binance case. "There were a lot of questions about how this particular activity in the crypto space intersected with our existing securities laws. So we're trying to take a step back, use our regulatory tools to write those rules, and then enforce those rules." That same philosophy guided the SEC's January decision to rescind Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, a controversial directive that had effectively blocked traditional financial institutions from offering crypto custody. "It wasn't even a rule," Peirce said. "It didn't go through the normal process. it was just a pronouncement." She said the policy had the effect of excluding banks and other experienced custodians from participating in the crypto space. "It said that lots of traditional entities that would have done custody for crypto, practically speaking, could not participate," she said.
Business Mayor
23-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
Protestors accuse Trump of corruption as he hosts crypto gala dinner
Lily Jamali Reporting from San Francisco Getty Images US President Donald Trump has hosted top purchasers of the cryptocurrency that bears his name at a gala dinner, in an event protestors and his Democrat opponents branded corrupt. $TRUMP was launched shortly before his inauguration in January, initially rocketing in value before falling sharply afterwards. 'It's fundamentally corrupt – a way to buy access to the President,' Democrat senator Chris Murphy wrote on X. Protesters gathered outside the event on Thursday night, which was held at a golf course near Washington DC, some carrying signs reading 'stop crypto corruption' and 'no kings.' The White House has rejected the accusations, and in a video of the dinner posted on social media, Trump is seen saying 'I always put the country way ahead of the business.' 'The Biden administration persecuted crypto innovators and we're bringing them back into the USA where they belong,' Trump is also recorded as saying. The event took place as Bitcoin – the leading cryptocurrency – was hitting a fresh record high price of almost $112,000 (£83,000) per coin before falling back slightly. What is $TRUMP? $TRUMP is what is known as a meme coin – a type of cryptocurrency inspired by internet memes or viral online trends. Its price peaked at $75 in January before plummeting to less than $8 in April – it was trading at around $12.50 at the time of writing. 'This is something that doesn't have obvious utility. It's not being used for payments. It's not being used as a store of value,' said Rob Hadick, General Partner of Dragonfly, a crypto venture fund. The dinner was advertised on the website as 'the most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION in the World.' The top 220 purchasers of the meme coin, viewable on a leaderboard, received invitations to the 'black-tie optional' event. The top investor in the $TRUMP meme coin is billionaire crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun who was charged with fraud and market manipulation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission during the Biden Administration. In February, the Trump administration paused the case. Sun said this week on the social media platform X that he planned to attend the dinner, calling himself Trump's 'TOP fan!' Sun then made a series of posts on Thursday night on X, including one that said it was an 'honour' to attend the dinner. Earlier in the day, Democrat senators held a press conference to denounce the event and to call for disclosure of who would be attending. Calling the dinner 'an orgy of corruption,' Senator Elizabeth Warren slammed Trump for 'using the presidency of the United States to make himself richer through crypto.' From crypto critic to investor Trump's views on cryptocurrency have undergone radical change in recent years. In 2021, he called Bitcoin a 'scam.' Now, he's not just in charge of regulating cryptocurrencies in the US – he and his family are active industry participants. In addition to the meme coin, the Trump family also holds a majority stake in the crypto exchange World Liberty Financial, which was launched just prior to the election. Trump expressed his desire to be the nation's first 'Crypto President' while campaigning for president and was a major beneficiary of campaign contributions from the crypto industry in the 2024 election. According to a report by the group State Democracy Defenders Action, Trump's investments in crypto have helped boost his net worth by as much as $2.9 billion. 'As a stakeholder in crypto assets, President Trump will likely profit from the very policies he is pursuing,' the report states. Three days into his term, Trump issued an Executive Order to establish a regulatory framework that promotes the growth of digital currencies. A Trump administration official told the BBC that the meme coin has nothing to do with the White House. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly pushed back on concerns about potential conflicts. 'The President is working to secure GOOD deals for the American people, not for himself,' Kelly said in a statement. But one former financial regulator likened the meme coin to gambling. 'It's like selling membership cards for his personal fan club which are then traded,' said Timothy Massad, Director of the Digital Asset Policy Project at Harvard. 'They have no value. But people speculate on the price and those purchases and that trading enriches him.' Reuters U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) speaks on Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center, in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., August 21, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Segar At a Senate committee hearing this week, Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) grilled Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the lack of transparency regarding who will attend Thursday night's dinner. Mr Murphy cited reports that many of the attendees at the invite-only event were expected to be foreigners. 'There's clearly a way around the State Department for foreign individuals of significant influence and wealth to be able to directly lobby the president of the United States,' Mr Murphy said. 'I don't have any concern that the president having dinner with someone is going to contravene the security of the United States,' responded Mr Rubio, who said he was unaware of the dinner. Additional reporting by Graham Fraser READ SOURCE
Economic Times
13-05-2025
- Business
- Economic Times
Cryptocurrency price latest: Around 600,000 wallets have lost nearly whopping $4 billion so far in President Donald Trump's $TRUMP meme coin, claims report
$TRUMP coins' current market value is $2.74 billion. About 600,000 other wallets have lost $3.87 billion so far, with $117 million of losses occurring after Trump announced the dinner on social media Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads FAQs Buyers of U.S. President Donald Trump 's $TRUMP meme coin have reportedly made gains but not all, according to a the $TRUMP meme coin launch three days before the president's inauguration, more than 60 large wallets have profited close to $1.5 billion, with $48 million in profits occurring after the April dinner announcement, according to reviews by Inca Digital and crypto analytics tracker Bubblemaps as of May least two of the largest investors in the $TRUMP contest have made profits in excess of $10 million each, Inca Digital found, while 15 investors have made more than $1 about 600,000 other wallets have lost $3.87 billion so far, with $117 million of losses occurring after Trump announced the dinner on social media, Bubblemaps found. The purchases were on the secondary market, meaning Trump's family collected relatively small amounts of fees, Reuters coins surged to $75 after Trump announced them over his Inauguration weekend before falling to a low of $7.50. On Sunday, $TRUMP was trading around $ current market value of all $TRUMP coins is $2.74 billion. A company controlled by the Trump family and a second firm together hold 80 per cent of the remaining supply of the meme coins, which are advertised with an image of the president raising his fist in reference to his July assassination far, the entities behind the Trump coin have earned $320.19 million in fees, including at least $1.35 million after the dinner announcement, according to blockchain analytics firm $TRUMP meme coin is part of the Trump family's growing array of crypto ventures including the trading platform World Liberty Financial, Trump Media & Technology Group's new crypto ETFs, a crypto mining operation, American Bitcoin, and a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar called USD1.A1. President of USA is Donald Trump.A2. The coins surged to $75 after Trump announced them over his Inauguration weekend before falling to a low of $7.50. On Sunday, $TRUMP was trading around $14.
