President Donald Trump and his family have made a whopping $6 billion overnight after launching a new crypto currency.
This comes after the new crypto venture, with the coin being called WLFI, opened its trading on Monday (September 1).
World Liberty Financial, which is a finance protocol and cryptocurrency company, was co-founded by Trump’s sons, Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump and Barron Trump, while Trump is named as the firm’s ‘co-founder emeritus’.
According to CoinMarketCap, trading started yesterday and a whopping $1 billion changed hands within the first hour.
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There has been push-back from members of the public that this involvement by the president could lead to conflicts of interest for the First Family.
However, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denied this, saying that ‘neither the president nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest’.
The CEO of World Liberty Financial happens to be Zach Witkoff, who is the son of Trump’s US Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.
Zach Witkoff has stated that the crypto firm is non-political, although went on to say that ‘clearly President Trump is the greatest president of all time’.
This isn’t the first time the Trump family has delved into the world of crypto.
Earlier this year, on the eve of his inauguration, the president launched his own meme coin, called $TRUMP.
And in the 24 hours that followed, the Republican businessman gained more wealth than in his entire career, with his net worth jumping to $60 billion.
This earned him a spot on the list of the top 25 richest people in the entire world.
Trump took to his own social media platform Truth Social to announce his new crypto, where he wrote: “My NEW Official Trump Meme is HERE! It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING!”
It certainly was unusual for an incoming president to launch a cryptocurrency coin just hours before being sworn into office but even this wasn’t the first association with a meme coin for the Trump administration.
Shortly after his election victory in November 2024, Trump announced that his then-buddy Elon Musk would be taking on the role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
While not technically a government department, DOGE was purported to act as an outside advisor where Musk has promised to slash the federal budget by trillions of dollars.
Well, we all know how that unfolded.