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Impersonators have descended on a soon-to-be-announced crypto venture tied to presidential candidate Donald Trump and his family, capitalizing on gaps in information about the project to promote inauthentic crypto tokens.
Led by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., the sons of the former president, the Trumps have embarked on a campaign to promote an upcoming project—called World Liberty Financial—on social media. For the best part of a month, the family has teased the launch in cryptic posts that offer little detail.
In an X post on August 6, Eric wrote that he had “truly fallen in love with crypto.” The following day, in another post, Donald Jr. said he was “about to shake up the crypto world” and warned his followers not to “get left behind.” On August 22, in a post on Truth Social, the former president himself promoted the venture: “For too long, the average American has been squeezed by the big banks and financial elites. It’s time we take a stand—together,” wrote Trump.
But the family is yet to provide first-hand details about the purpose or functionality of World Liberty Financial. And third-party operators are taking advantage of the information vacuum.
In late August, an advertisement appeared at the bottom of the project’s Telegram channel—which has been pitched by the Trump family as “the ONLY [sic] place to get the official news”—promoting an inauthentic crypto token giveaway. The ad, which is still live at the time of writing, leads to an external webpage featuring an illustration of Donald Trump pulling apart his shirt at the buttons to reveal a Superman-style costume beneath with a ‘T’ logo. Visitors are promised up to $15,000 in crypto tokens and invited to “connect now your wallet [sic] and make the world great again.”
On August 29, a post to the Telegram channel for World Liberty Financial warned subscribers—of which there are now more than 200,000—away from the ad. “We have been made aware of some ads circulating on Telegram claiming to be from us, offering fake airdrops or token sales,” read the post. “We are NOT doing any airdrops or selling any tokens at this time.” But a week later, the ad remains in place, and as many as 50,000 people have subscribed to the competing Telegram channel associated with it. It is not clear how much money, if any, has been taken.
Eric Trump did not respond to questions about the inability to prevent inauthentic ads from being served through the World Liberty Financial Telegram channel. Telegram did not respond to a request for comment.
On September 3, X accounts belonging to Lara Trump, wife to Eric, and Tiffany Trump, daughter of the former president, were allegedly compromised and used by the hackers to peddle another crypto token purportedly related to World Liberty Financial. The posts have since been deleted, but screenshots indicate they were viewed by at least 200,000 people. Data from token analysis platform DEXTools suggests that around 2,000 people collectively purchased $1.8 million worth of the fake token.
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“Lara’s and Tiffany Trump's X accounts have been hacked. Do NOT click on any links or purchase any tokens shared from their profiles,” pleaded another message in the Telegram channel.
World Liberty Financial is part of a broader effort by Trump to court the crypto industry, members of which are broadly supportive of his reelection campaign. In July, speaking to thousands of bitcoiners at a conference in Nashville, Tennessee, Trump pledged to turn the US into the “crypto capital of the planet.” But a clumsy execution could undermine Trump’s attempt to ingratiate himself, perpetuating the impression that the crypto industry is a breeding ground for scams and grift.
A report published by crypto media outlet CoinDesk on Tuesday, allegedly based on a leaked white paper, indicates World Liberty Financial will provide peer-to-peer borrowing and lending services—an example of a concept known as decentralized finance (DeFi). The Trumps will reportedly launch a crypto token alongside the platform, which is expected to afford holders the right to vote on its future development.
DeFi industry incumbents are cautiously optimistic about the prospect of the Trump family’s debut; they are glad of the publicity but wary of the reputational damage World Liberty Financial could cause if it were to fall on its face, or if a hack or technical snafu were to result in financial losses.
“I welcome any effort to bring DeFi into the mainstream,” says Brad Harrison, CEO of lending service Venus Protocol. “But like the autopilot in a Tesla, DeFi may give the appearance of something that’s simple, [even though] the inner workings are complex. Without a solid grasp of its nuances in the hands of seasoned technologists and financial engineers, a new platform risks being more of a branding exercise than a substantive and safe contribution to the space.”
The family’s mammoth public platform and the extent of the partisan support for Trump himself are valuable marketing assets. “[World Liberty Financial] is launching with the most free marketing that any crypto company could ever get,” says Zach Hamilton, founder of crypto startup Sarcophagus and venture partner at VC firm Venture51.
But for its notoriety, World Liberty Financial is already attracting the wrong kinds of attention. And the risk posed by impersonators is amplified by the inability to reverse crypto transactions, making it that much easier for someone to lose large sums. “People have to be very cautious,” says Harrison. “You can lose your money. People have lost their money.”
