Eric Trump promises the ‘most pro-crypto president’ in history
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Donald Trump’s image on a screen above a booth at the Bitcoin Mena 2024 conference in Abu Dhabi on Dec 9.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
Follow topic:
ABU DHABI – Mr Eric Trump flew across the world to headline a cryptocurrency conference in the United Arab Emirates this week and told thousands of enthusiastic attendees that he and his father, US President-elect Donald Trump, were effectively working in tandem to push crypto, a business sector the family is directly invested in.
The message was notable because it contrasted drastically with the promise the family made when Trump entered the White House four years ago, to keep business and government operations separate.
Mr Eric Trump said he had phoned his father to celebrate when the price of Bitcoin hit US$100,000 a crypto-friendly lawyer
“You’re going to have the most pro-crypto president in the history of America,” Mr Eric Trump told the crowd. “Think about a president who isn’t going to allow Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies to be overregulated and stifled.”
Mr Eric Trump made the remarks at the Bitcoin Mena 2024 conference, where he also promoted the family’s new business venture, World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency platform.
His comments to attendees signalled that the Trump family is more willing to publicly announce when the President-elect’s governing role will steer into his personal investments and that it is not as concerned as it was in his first administration about avoiding potential conflicts or the appearance of them.
In his keynote speech, Mr Eric Trump explained that his family had come to embrace cryptocurrency in part because many major financial institutions and other corporations stopped doing business with the family in the aftermath of the Jan 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol.
Cryptocurrency, he explained, is a way to slam the door back in the face of JPMorgan Chase and other major banks and financial institutions that distanced themselves from his father and the family business.
The President-elect was initially a crypto sceptic – he called Bitcoin “a scam” – but he started to embrace crypto on the campaign trail in 2025. NYTIMES
