Business

Trump Jr. dismisses crypto conflicts of interest, says dad’s not checking blockchain ledgers

By Dylan Butts

Copyright cnbc

Trump Jr. dismisses crypto conflicts of interest, says dad’s not checking blockchain ledgers

Donald Trump Jr. on Wednesday dismissed criticism that a crypto venture tied to his family had any potential conflicts of interest, as his firm, World Liberty Financial, seeks global investors.

Concerns that World Liberty Financial investors may be seeking favor with the Trump administration are “complete nonsense,” Trump Jr. told CNBC on the sidelines of Token2049, a prominent crypto conference in Singapore.

“I don’t think anyone actually believes that my father or [Zach’s] father would be looking at ledgers on the blockchain to see who bought what, and that carrying any kind of favor,” he said.

The U.S. President’s eldest son, who is a co-founder of World Liberty Financial, was accompanied at the event by the firm’s CEO Zach Wilkoff, son of Steve Witkoff, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East under the Trump administration.

Witkoff, who was involved in his father’s real estate business before World Liberty Financial, echoed the sentiment. “Don and my World Liberty mission is big, but our dad’s mission is much bigger. They’re not focused on stablecoins, nor are they involved in a stablecoin business,” he said.

The company — first founded in September 2024 — launched its stablecoin six months later. The token, dubbed USD1, is pegged to the U.S. dollar and backed by short-term U.S. government treasuries. It also has a publicly traded “governance token,” or the crypto version of a shareholder vote, called WLFI.