45105
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Trump teams up with pickup artist for new crypto scheme
URL: https://popular.info/p/trump-teams-up-with-pickup-artist
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Trump teams up with pickup artist for new crypto scheme JUDD LEGUM SEP 10, 2024 Donald Trump gives a keynote speech on the third day of the Bitcoin 2024 conference on July 27, 2024, in Nashville. (Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images) Donald Trump is not just running for president; he's also launching a new crypto company. Trump, according to reports, is the "Chief Crypto Advocate" for the nascent venture, known as World Liberty Financial. Trump's three sons also have roles. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, in addition to being co-chairs of the Trump 2024 transition team, are "Web 3 Ambassadors" for World Liberty Financial. Both have been promoting the company through their social media accounts. 18-year-old Barron Trump is World Liberty Financial's official "DeFi Visionary." Trump has already blurred the line between World Liberty Financial and his presidential campaign. In an August 29 post on X, Trump used an excerpt from his July campaign speech at the BitCoin Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, to promote the new company. In the speech, Trump pledged to make the United States "the crypto capital of the planet." What will World Liberty Financial do, exactly? Neither Trump nor his business partners have released many details. Broadly, World Liberty Financial will be involved in "DiFi" or decentralized finance. DiFi companies offer financial services outside of the traditional banking system, typically allowing peer-to- peer lending, borrowing, savings, and other services. World Liberty Financial also says it wants to facilitate "mass adoption of stablecoins," crypto tokens pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar, "securing America’s financial leadership and influence on the global stage." It's unclear how the company will accomplish those goals. If Trump wins in November, he would be in a position to dramatically increase the value of his family's stake in World Liberty Financial. Indeed, the company appears to be structured to take maximum advantage of a second Trump term. A white paper laying out the details of World Liberty Financial's ownership structure was obtained by the industry publication Coindesk. Ownership in the company will be established through the issuance of a "governance" token. Notably, 70% of these tokens are allocated to "insiders" like Trump and his sons. Coindesk reports that this is "a significantly higher-than-normal allocation." Typically, most of these kinds of tokens are offered for public sale because "proceeds have historically been largely invested back into projects, to grow them." (The company is reportedly planning on valuing the company at $1.8 billion.) Reserving most of the tokens for insiders "raises the question of whether the project is an attempt to cash in on the Trump family's fame rather than build a novel DeFi platform." The industry term for this is a "rug pull," where "founding teams hype up a project only to dump their own tokens once retail traders begin buying." Another complicating factor is that, currently, the Securities and Exchange Commission treats most new crypto tokens as securities, particularly when marketed as investment opportunities. This means that absent complying with the SEC's regulations on issuing securities, World Liberty Financial's governance token could be illegal. The company appears to be getting around this problem by making its governance tokens non-transferable at the outset. According to the white paper, the tokens will be "locked indefinitely in a wallet or smart contract until such time, if ever, [the tokens] are unlocked through protocol governance procedures in a manner that does not contravene applicable law." In other words, a future Trump administration could unlock the value of World Liberty Financial's tokens by appointing an SEC chair who is friendly to the crypto industry. Notably, Trump has publicly pledged to immediately "fire" SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who has sought to rein in the crypto industry. That decision could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars for Trump and his family. Trump's business partner is a professional pickup artist World Liberty Financial is not owned by Trump or his family. The company is registered to Zak Folkman. Previously, "Folkman previously registered a company called Date Hotter Girls LLC and posted seminars on YouTube on how to pick up women." One of Folkman's "masterclasses" provided instruction on how to "Become the Ultimate Alpha Male." Folkman also partnered with Logan Paul to create Subify, a "censorship-free" competitor to OnlyFans, which sells subscriptions to explicit content, and Patreon. Folkman, World Liberty Financial's head of operations, also has a checkered history in the crypto industry. Folkman previously co-founded Dough Finance, which lost more than $2 million of customer funds in a July 2024 hack. Early code from World Liberty Financial appears to be lifted "directly from Dough Finance." It is unknown if that code will be used in the final product or if that code contains the vulnerability exploited in the Dough Finance hack. Trump fans already scammed Last year, Americans "were duped out of more than $5.6 billion last year through fraud schemes involving cryptocurrency," according to an FBI report released on Monday. World Liberty Financial has not even launched yet, and it has already unwittingly facilitated two scams. World Liberty Financial has built a large community on Telegram, a popular messaging service, attracting more than 200,000 users. But a "rival channel operated by cyber criminals has managed to place ads on the official channel." The rogue channel, called "World Liberty Financial Airdrop" offers users "up to $15,000 worth of cryptocurrency for anyone who 'connects' their crypto wallet." 70,000 users have joined the fraudulent channel, although it is unclear how many have been taken in by the scam. Separately, "the X accounts of Republican National Committee Co-Chair Lara Trump and Tiffany Trump were compromised" and "unauthorized users posted links to a hoax website" which purported to sell World Liberty Financial tokens. The posts "were viewed by at least 200,000 people" and "around 2,000 people collectively purchased $1.8 million worth of the fake token." |
45111
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: while the Biden/Harris administration commits genocide (NT)
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Responses:
[45112]
45112
From: ryan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: while the Biden/Harris administration tries (NT)
Responses:
None
45108
From: The Hierophant, [DNS_Address]
Subject: And this
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is what his supporters intentionally or ignorantly keep overlooking and not paying attention to: " he would be in a position to dramatically increase the value of his family's stake in World Liberty Financial." The voters for him don't realize or understand that he isn't for them - he is only for himself, his family and his uber wealthy supporters. He doesn't give a rat's about the 'average joe' who rabidly supports him. |
Responses:
[45109]
45109
From: mitra, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: And this
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All those Trump University students; shorted contractors; teen pageant contestants; Maga investors; and so many more have paid for the privilege to learn who he is. Now if they will only vote for Harris or stay home. |
Responses:
None
45106
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: In Trump-Backed Project, Insiders Are Poised for Unusually Big Payouts
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In Trump-Backed Crypto Project, Insiders Are Poised for Unusually Big Token Payouts Finance In Trump-Backed Crypto Project, Insiders Are Poised for Unusually Big Token Payouts The team could get 70% of World Liberty Financial's tokens, a significantly higher-than-normal allocation from a project marketed as a solution to the “rigged” traditional finance system. By Sam Kessler, Cheyenne Ligon AccessTimeIcon Sep 4, 2024 at 11:54 a.m. EDT Updated Sep 4, 2024 at 7:32 p.m. EDT Eric, Donald and Donald Trump Jr. (Desiree Navarro/WireImage) Eric, Donald and Donald Trump Jr. (Desiree Navarro/WireImage) A whopping 70% of Trump-backed World Liberty Financial's WLFI tokens will be reserved for the project's insiders, according to a white paper draft obtained by CoinDesk. Of the remaining 30% of the tokens distributed via a public sale, the founding team will also receive a portion of the proceeds. When asked if a 70% allocation to insiders is high, one source who advises projects on such matters replied, "LMAO. Nice joke, ser." Kalshi's Political Prediction Markets Halted; eToro Reaches $1.5M Settlement With the SEC Chances of 50 Basis Point Fed Rate Cut Next Week Jump to 47% 00:59 Chances of 50 Basis Point Fed Rate Cut Next Week Jump to 47% Ethereum Could Benefit Regardless of the Election Results: Analyst 00:44 Ethereum Could Benefit Regardless of the Election Results: Analyst Is Bitcoin a 'Trump Trade'? 15:41 Is Bitcoin a 'Trump Trade'? SUI Beat the Market With Nearly 20% Rally; Deutsche Bank Survey Shows Crypto Is Here to Stay 02:16 SUI Beat the Market With Nearly 20% Rally; Deutsche Bank Survey Shows Crypto Is Here to Stay World Liberty Financial, the new crypto lending platform promoted by former U.S. President Donald Trump and his sons, advertises itself as a way of "putting the power of finance back in the hands of the people" and a solution to the "rigged" traditional finance system. CoinDesk has obtained a draft white paper for the project. It reveals that the vast majority of the power promised by World Liberty Financial will be concentrated in the hands of a select few insiders: 70% of WLFI, the project's "governance" crypto token, will be "held by the founders, team, and service providers." The remaining 30%, according to the white paper, will be distributed "via public sale," with some of the money raised from that also going to project insiders – though some will be reserved in a treasury "to support World Liberty Financial's operations." A 70% allocation to insiders is unusually high. Ethereum's Genesis block reserved a combined 16.6% of ether (ETH) for the Ethereum Foundation and early contributors (though co-founder Vitalik Buterin later said they received even less). The three companies behind Cardano, another popular blockchain project, retained a combined 20% of ADA at its launch. Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, is estimated to hold a little over 5% of the total supply. Asked if a 70% allocation to insiders is high, one source who advises early stage projects replied: "LMAO. nice joke ser." World Liberty Financial has not finalized its plans yet, according to a person close to the project. "The team is working with a lot of contributors, and we're not quite sure which version [of the white paper] you are referring to at the moment, but they have not finalized their tokenomics yet," according to a statement from World Liberty Financial. "All the information we've shared so far that is final/approved can be found on WLF's Twitter (X) and Telegram. Those will be the main channels for any announcements." The token details from the draft white paper follow a CoinDesk report Tuesday about World Liberty Financial, which revealed that the project's team includes members of the Trump family plus people behind a recently hacked crypto app. CoinDesk also reported that World Liberty Financial will be built atop Aave, the popular Ethereum-based lending platform. Read more: Inside the Trump Crypto Project Linked to a $2M DeFi Hack and Former Pick-Up Artist World Liberty Financial's allocation raises the question of whether the project is an attempt to cash in on the Trump family's fame rather than build a novel DeFi platform. Pre-sale proceeds have historically been largely invested back into projects, to grow them. If insiders plan to hoard most of the World Liberty Financial money for themselves, how will it deliver on its lofty promises? One of those lofty promises is to make the U.S. the "crypto capital of the planet." In a Wednesday Telegram post, the World Liberty Financial team advised skeptics that its "plan will speak for itself. The brightest minds in crypto are backing us, and what's coming will make all doubters think twice." "Our mission is crystal clear: Make crypto and America great by driving the mass adoption of stablecoins and decentralized finance," the post added. "We believe that DeFi is the future, and we're committed to making it accessible and secure for everyone. In general, public token pre-sales are rare in today's crypto industry, largely because initial coin offerings (ICOs) – which were once the preferred method for crypto startups to raise funds by selling tokens directly to investors – have fallen out of favor. This shift occurred due to increasing regulatory scrutiny, widespread fraud and the emergence of alternative fundraising models that offer more oversight and investor protections. World Liberty Financial's approach differs from a traditional ICO, however, because the WLFI token will be non-transferable, meaning it cannot be traded between users. This restriction is likely intended to protect World Liberty Financial from securities law violations. WLFI token that can't be transferred According to the white paper, "All $WLFI will be non-transferable and locked indefinitely in a wallet or smart contract until such time, if ever, $WLFI are unlocked through protocol governance procedures in a manner that does not contravene applicable law." It continues: "Each purchaser of $WLFI will be screened to ensure that no specially designated nationals or other persons sanctioned by FinCen are permitted to purchase $WLFI." "FinCen" seems to be a mistaken reference to the Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, a U.S. Treasury Department office that's distinct from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Earlier this week, CoinDesk revealed World Liberty Financial's links to Dough Finance, a recently hacked lending app whose founders include Zak Folkman, a former pick-up artist and entrepreneur who is officially registered as the owner of World Liberty Financial LLC. While Donald Trump appears to hope that World Liberty Financial could help him earn favor with the blockchain industry, even some of the former president's supporters in the industry are warning that the plan could backfire. "Is there something that we, as crypto twitter, can collectively do to stop the launch of world liberty coin," Nic Carter, a prominent crypto industry figure and Trump supporter, asked on X (formerly Twitter). He added: "I think it genuinely damages trump's electoral prospects, especially if it gets hacked (it'll be the juiciest DeFi target ever and it's forked from a protocol that itself was hacked). it's also an obvious target for the SEC. at best it's an unnecessary distraction, at worst it's a huge embarrassment and source of (additional) legal trouble. so are we signing a petition or what?" Ahead of its launch, the project has attracted the attention of fraudsters and hackers. Yesterday, the X accounts of Eric Trump's wife Lara Trump and Trump's youngest daughter Tiffany Trump were hacked and used to promote a crypto scam crafted to look like World Liberty Financial. Read more: Trump Family Members Hacked to Promote Apparent Crypto Scam Donald Trump is officially listed as the project's "Chief Crypto Advocate." His two oldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric, share the role of "Web 3 Ambassador." Barron Trump, the former president's 18-year-old son, is World Liberty Financial's "DeFi Visionary." Though the Trump family appears to have been heavily involved in the promotion and inception of the project, the white paper takes pains to distance the project from any political affiliation, stating: "World Liberty Financial is not owned, managed, operated, or sold by Donald J. Trump, the Trump Organization, or any of their respective family members, affiliates, or principals. However, they may own $WLFI and receive compensation from World Liberty Financial and its developers. World Liberty Financial and $WLFI are not political and have no affiliation with any political campaign." Danny Nelson contributed reporting to this story. |
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[45107]
45107
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Trump's blurs line between World Liberty Financial & his campaign...
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Judd Legum 3. Trump has already blurred the line between World Liberty Financial and his presidential campaign. In an August 29 post on X, Trump used an excerpt from his July campaign speech at the BitCoin Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, to promote the new company. In the speech, Trump pledged to make the United States "the crypto capital of the planet." |
Responses:
None