Trump's Crypto Project: Timely Ether Buy Amidst Tariff Turmoil

Trump's Crypto Project Buys Ether Amidst Tariff Turmoil

World Liberty Financial, a decentralized-finance project linked to the Trump family, appears to have added tens of millions of dollars worth of Ether (ETH) to its portfolio following a significant market crash over the weekend. The crash was triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump's brief imposition of tariffs on Mexico and Canada.

Eric Trump, the president's third child, took to social media platform X on Monday, stating, "In my opinion, it's a great time to add $ETH. You can thank me later." He later edited the post and deleted the second sentence. Representatives for World Liberty and the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Since its launch in October, World Liberty has faced questions about potential conflicts of interest, given the Trump administration's influence over regulations. Typically, a promise of a return on an investment, as initially hinted by Eric Trump, could attract scrutiny from regulators such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Ryne Miller, a partner at Lowenstein Sandler LLP and former general counsel for failed crypto exchange FTX's U.S. unit, commented, "We're all still navigating what the new paradigm is going to be with respect to the intersection of crypto and the securities laws going forward. What will not change is that regulators are going to expect transparency and disclosure, and regulators will continue to be very aggressive where they suspect fraud or other similar misconduct."

According to blockchain data analytics firm Nansen, World Liberty's digital wallets added about 21,177 Ether tokens in net inflows worth about $55 million on Monday. This figure includes both purchases and the conversion of an Ether derivative to the cryptocurrency. Between January 18 and February 1, Nansen estimated that World Liberty's digital wallets received a total net inflow of Ether worth about $340 million before the funds were sent to wallets belonging to Coinbase Prime.

World Liberty's X account also posted on Monday that the project was not selling tokens, addressing concerns from the crypto community about whether moving its assets to Coinbase Prime indicated a sell-off.

Crypto-related endorsements are not uncommon, and many crypto firms have enlisted celebrities to promote their projects. However, these partnerships have faced legal scrutiny in the past