from Hacker News

Secret Deals, Foreign Investments: The Rise of Trump’s Crypto Firm

by watchdogtimer on 4/30/25, 11:19 AM with 151 comments

  • by biglyburrito on 4/30/25, 11:29 AM

  • by Havoc on 4/30/25, 5:32 PM

    I miss the days when new coins at least attempted to pretend they contain some sort of financial innovation. There was at least a possibility of something of substance there.

    Now it's all celebrity endorsement, hype and lies.

    And having the US prez jump on that bandwagon and ride it while in office is just mind-boggling.

  • by bgwalter on 4/30/25, 12:46 PM

    Interesting. I thought you could do this in the open:

    https://www.theverge.com/news/646426/a-1-million-per-head-di...

    Is the Sovereign Bitcoin Fund bailout scam still on the table or is Bitcoin doing well enough so that it isn't needed any longer?

  • by revel on 4/30/25, 2:11 PM

    I was a big enough believer in crypto to literally start a company in this space only to leave it completely disenchanted and deeply pessimistic about the direction of the industry. I felt that there were many real legal and regulatory challenges that governments just didn't want to deal with. No government wants to enable money laundering, black markets, corruption and terrorism; or so I thought!

    Now we're in a situation that's so much worse than I ever imagined -- Trump coins are vehicles for naked bribery and corruption with a sprinkle of encryption on top. I was worried about black markets, Trump has literally been using his office to grant access to top holders of his scam coin.

    This is a big lesson for everyone about why some degree of regulation is necessary.

  • by VeejayRampay on 4/30/25, 1:28 PM

    anyone from europe recognizes this immediately as some form of thieving monarchy, it really is ludicrous that is still possible in 2025

  • by bediger4000 on 4/30/25, 11:58 AM

    This article is soft peddling corruption, and it confirms that Trump takes bribes via his cryptocurrency operation.

  • by instagib on 4/30/25, 12:42 PM

    “Under the company’s rules, the Trumps and other World Liberty investors are not allowed to sell their coins on the open market, though the company has said it might eventually lift that restriction if other buyers of the coin agree.”

    I have heard this one before.

  • by techterrier on 4/30/25, 1:46 PM

    presumably this is what the web 3.0 crowd who backed Trump, including our own hosts, had in mind

  • by hypeatei on 4/30/25, 12:43 PM

    I don't see much references to "the swamp" anymore now that we have a sitting president doing a crypto grift. I thought dark money and mysterious figures pulling the strings is conspiracy worthy but I guess not when it's Trump.

  • by whyage on 4/30/25, 1:20 PM

    What can be done to stop this flagrant grift?

  • by WinstonSmith84 on 4/30/25, 1:55 PM

    as a "crypto" enthusiast, this is sad to see that he is making this industry looking really bad - obviously he doesn't care, money is money. In the future, maybe even now, we are going to have those associating crypto to Trump ..

    The lack of regulations in crypto make these scams legals without any fear of any repercussion

  • by yalogin on 4/30/25, 1:42 PM

    The amount of corruption and incompetence ignored by his base is staggering. This is all because they don’t like immigration?

  • by cruzcampo on 4/30/25, 2:06 PM

    Remember, they made Jimmy Carter sell his peanut farm.

    It's ridiculous how the US has gone downhill since.

  • by TrapLord_Rhodo on 4/30/25, 2:08 PM

    The creation of the trump coin is a signal to the crypto community that the SEC will stop going after crypto companies. I have read alot of people who ended up going into crypto and some even getting lucrative investment from Andreeson horowitz, lightspeed, etc etc. And then one day, they get a letter in the mail saying they are now a Politically Exposed Entity (PEE). Then all of their banks drop them, they can't get credit and they can't get loans. The SEC put out a letter saying "Come work with us", and when the founders tried, they would become a PEE instantly. There was no recourse with the SEC, and many smart people ended up completely losing their lives. The only way they could get back to 'real' life, was by trying to go into a different industry and 'avoid the eye' which was, who knows?

    Now, as the trump + melania coin acting as a grift, instead of "alternative funding mechanism". I mean, you could already 'donate' directly to the president, and even get a tax writeoff for it. Atleast this way you'll have to pay capital gains. You could already pay $1m to get a audience with the president, how is this any different? Hunter Biden made multi-million dollar deals, and got paid 50k a month for a being on various boards... despite being a known drugie.

    the "Top 200 holders" get a dinner with the president. Not saying it's better or worse, just saying it's pretty much the same thing that every president has had access to.

    It's not that i entirely believe all of this, but i would like to provide some counter weight to all the comments that are all just parroting "Grift".