Donald-Trump-launches-new-cryptocurrency
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00former president Trump is rolling out a new cryptocurrency business. Trump
00:04announced World Liberty Financial in a live stream on X saying quote crypto is
00:08one of those things we have to do. He also suggested he would work to limit
00:11regulation of the industry if elected. ABC's Elizabeth Chelsea joins me now for
00:16more on that. Elizabeth what do we know so far about this platform World Liberty
00:19Financial? You know Diane we don't have a lot of details, no clear specifics on
00:23its financials or really what its exact purpose is. Its details have been
00:28trickling out so here's what we do know. It's called World Liberty Financial. On
00:31the website of this platform former president Trump's photos are prominently
00:36featured and you can see there it does tout a digital currency. Its
00:40symbol there is WL. That could be similar to something you'd see like
00:45Bitcoin but the value of this digital currency the business venture says would
00:49be tied to the US dollar so that's actually called a stable coin compared
00:53to Bitcoin in the world of cryptocurrency. What we have heard
00:56former president Trump and his family expect especially Eric Trump and Don
01:00Jr. his sons they have touted this as a way for typical American households to
01:05invest in cryptocurrency so it could be a platform kind of like a crypto bank
01:09where you would buy and sell crypto assets but there is the reality here
01:13that they as founders would likely benefit if the value Diane of that
01:18digital currency does go up that could make their own family money. Now Trump's
01:23been skeptical in the past about cryptocurrency and once even called
01:27Bitcoin a scam so what changed? An absolute turnaround from the former
01:31president on this issue he was an outspoken skeptic of cryptocurrency he
01:35regularly bashed it as an investment type and yet we've seen over the past
01:39couple of months in this campaign he has really now become an advocate for
01:43crypto and part of that is the fact that we have seen him directly courting big
01:48crypto donors. Donors in that industry who have been spending a lot of money on
01:52this campaign Diane more money than a lot of other corporations. The former
01:56president has spoken at cryptocurrency events he has vowed to kind of
02:01deregulate this industry which has faced increasing scrutiny here in
02:05Washington. Many here still call it kind of the Wild West when you think about
02:09regulation of digital currencies of Bitcoin of those assets and the former
02:14president has really made it a part of his platform to say I you know I mean
02:18the Securities and Exchange Commission some of those regulators have gone too
02:22far. So Elizabeth what could this mean from an ethical standpoint if Trump wins
02:28the election? Big ethical questions here and some that ethics watchdogs that
02:32we've spoken with at ABC News are already sounding the alarm about because
02:35the fact is if the former president does stay invested in cryptocurrencies that
02:39could pose a conflict of interest if he is then overseeing as the President of
02:43the United States if he's reelected these agencies that are charged with
02:46regulating that industry and it's not just cryptocurrency Diane this is
02:49something we have seen concerns about with some of the other businesses of
02:52the former president his media company which owns that platform truth social he
02:57has vowed he will not sell a stake in that company if he owns a publicly
03:01traded company while in office again questions about what that would look
03:04like from an ethics point of view Diane. All right ABC's Elizabeth Shelsey thank
03:09you