Trump crypto event for World Liberty Financial offers few details so far

Around sixteen minutes into Republican former President Donald Trump’s “state of crypto” address on X, cryptocurrencies got their first mention.

For over a month, the former president and his family have been pumping up a secretive family crypto project, promising that it will do many things at once.

Early descriptions suggest that “World Liberty Financial” will be a sort of crypto banking platform, with 70% of the equity held by a small group of Trump famiy members and insiders. Users would be able to borrow and lend crypto on the platform, and the original investors would be paid via fees.

Now, with 50 days until the presidential election, the Republican nominee says he would be launching World Liberty Financial in a Twitter Spaces event that began shortly after 8 p.m. ET Monday from his Palm Beach resort and home, Mar-a-Lago.

The GOP presidential nominee began the conversation around crypto by talking about how much his three sons know about the industry and how “they’ve shown great judgment.”

“Barron knows so much about this,” Trump said of his youngest son. “He talks about his wallet. He’s got four wallets or something, but he knows this stuff.”

From there, Trump covered familiar ground, talking about the perceived hostility of the Securities and Exchange Commission towards the digital currency industry. Several high profile figures in the industry take issue with SEC Chair Gary Gensler, claiming that he is regulating the industry through enforcement actions, rather than with rules.

Early in the event, Trump did an “interview” with Farokh Sarmad, a crypto enthusiast and investor who has a media company.

Over the course of Trump’s 40-minute fireside chat, he talked about how he “wasn’t overly interested” in crypto initially, but sales of his Trump-branded nonfungible token collections helped open his eyes to the benefits of crypto. Though he added, “I think my children opened my eyes more than anything else.”

CNBC sent detailed questions to a World Liberty Financial press email address on Monday. A short time later, CNBC received an email reply sent from an anonymous gmail account, which did not answer CNBC’s questions or list a name for the sender.

Monday’s event comes at an unprecedented moment for Trump’s presidential campaign.

On Sunday afternoon at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump and his longtime friend and political donor, Steve Witkoff, were between the fifth and sixth holes on the course when gunshots were fired. The FBI has characterized the incident as an apparent assassination attempt on the former president.

Witkoff is a longtime friend of Trump’s. He’s also part of the small group of World Liberty Financial founders, according to an internal report on the project obtained by CoinDesk.

Along with Trump, Witkoff is one of at least a half dozen members of the project’s “leadership team.” This means he will also reportedly share in the 70% stake in the crypto bank that will be issued to its founding members at…