Trump's second son's crypto business experience

At the time of Token2049 Dubai, the Trump family made another move.

On the evening of April 29, according to The National, Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Group, revealed that the Trump Group Trump Organisation will cooperate with Dar Global, a London-listed company, to launch a $1 billion development project in Dubai, which will include a Trump-branded hotel, residential units and clubhouses. The building will be located at the entrance of downtown Dubai on Sheikh Zayed Road and is expected to be completed within five years. The project will accept payments in cryptocurrencies. This is not the first property in the Trump family's Middle East business map, but it is the first building that Trump's second son Eric Trump directly stated to be tied to cryptocurrency.

On April 30, according to The Block, Trump Media and Technology Group plans to launch Truth Social utility tokens. The token will be integrated into the Truth digital wallet and will be used to pay for Truth+ subscriptions in the early stage. In the future, it can be expanded to other products and services in the Truth Social ecosystem.

The Trump family, who has tasted great sweetness in the crypto field through political influence, is still continuing to expand its crypto territory. Eric Trump is the pioneer of crypto in the Trump family.

A career in crypto that has been green-lit all the way

In 2006, Eric Trump graduated from Georgetown University with a bachelor's degree in finance and management. In the same year, he joined the Trump Group as executive vice president of development and acquisitions. In 2012, Forbes named Eric Trump one of the "30 Under 30" in the real estate industry. When Trump first took office as US President in 2017, he retained ownership of the Trump Group while handing control of the huge business empire to his eldest son Donald Jr. and second son Eric. There is no rebellious bloody plot, Eric Trump has been working diligently for the Trump family. And now, as the executive vice president of the Trump Group, Eric Trump is still constantly showing up for the Trump family who bet on crypto.

From Bitcoin MENA in Abu Dhabi in 24 years to Token2049 Dubai in 25 years, in less than a year, Eric Trump has been full of titles of crypto companies. Not only does he serve as an ambassador in World Liberty Financial, a company directly related to him, and as the chief strategy officer in the new Bitcoin mining company American Bitcoin, he has also been hired as a consultant by a number of well-known crypto companies such as Japan's "MicroStrategy" Metaplanet.

In fact, becoming a consultant to a crypto giant is just a trivial matter for Eric Trump, who is backed by the Trump family. With the halo of "my father is the president", Eric Trump can easily and happily make an appointment with Micheal Saylor to talk at Mar-a-Lago. What really attracted the attention of the outside world is Eric Trump's "extremely close" attitude towards cryptocurrencies.

Eric Trump once said in an interview with CNBC. "You will find that cryptocurrencies are faster, more pragmatic, more transparent, and much cheaper." Unlike Donald Trump, who is in the presidency, Eric Trump, who is not subject to too many restrictions, is regarded as a "white glove" who directly implements Trump's business will. He also repeatedly called for cryptocurrencies on social media and in public speeches, saying that "Bitcoin is one of the greatest means of storing value" and "now is a good time to bet on cryptocurrencies."

"Now, I know something about almost everyone in this industry," Eric Trump said. "A few years ago, I fell in love with this industry and dove headfirst into it."

"Two-way rush" for the interests

However, Eric Trump, who comes from a business family, inherited the style of a speculator. Behind his "fanatical shouting" endorsement, perhaps more of the Trump family's further money-making plan.

In the traditional financial field, the influence of the US president is still checked and balanced by a relatively complete legal system and financial system, and the intricate Wall Street forces also exert a considerable influence on the White House. In 2022, about two years after the end of President Trump's first term, two subsidiaries of the Trump Group were found guilty by a New York jury of multiple charges, including tax fraud, falsification of business records and conspiracy. All 17 charges were convicted three weeks after Trump announced his participation in the 2024 election. A Florida bank called Capital One immediately closed more than 300 Trump Group bank accounts after the riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

To this end, before Trump returned to the White House, the Trump Group announced a new ethics plan that would restrict Trump's participation in management decisions and other business aspects during his presidency. Eric Trump publicly stated that the Trump Group "may be the most restricted company on the planet."

In contrast, the cryptocurrency field, which wanders on the regulatory boundary and has sufficient liquidity, has become the favorite of the Trump family. The two meme coins Trump and Melania alone have added billions of dollars to the family's book wealth. The Trump family gave up directly taking advantage of the entangled Wall Street forces and broke into the crypto field as a protector of financial innovation and crypto liberator. Eric Trump publicly stated that his entry into the cryptocurrency field was not a financial bet, but a rebellion. The move began with what he called an "industry war." He stated that banks are closing accounts, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is cracking down on exchanges, and cryptocurrency users are "deprived of bank accounts" simply because they hold cryptocurrencies.

However, during Trump's second term as president, the US crypto sector has indeed been unshackled. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have previously been very strict in their review of crypto exchanges and projects, but since Trump took office, the United States has taken a big step in crypto regulation, abolishing the "Defi Broker Rule", withdrawing the lawsuit against Xrp, releasing the founder of Silk Road, and so on.

It can be said that in the US political world where power is linked to money, the Trump family, with the sharp eyes of businessmen, chose the easiest way to get rich.

Legendary reverse "order king"

However, Eric Trump's three high-profile orders in 2025 formed a strange causal chain with the sharp decline in the market:

On February 3, Eric posted on the X platform, "In my opinion, now is a good time to increase your position in $ETH. You can thank me later." At that time, the price of Ethereum hovered at $2,900, and market sentiment was slightly optimistic due to the Trump family's World Liberty Financial (WLFI) project. However, within 48 hours after the call, the price of ETH plummeted to $2,000, a drop of more than 30%. On-chain data shows that WLFI transferred about $300 million worth of crypto assets to Coinbase Prime on the day of the call, including 66,000 ETH.

On February 25, when the price of Bitcoin rebounded to around $89,000, Eric spoke again, advising investors to "buy BTC on dips and hold it for the long term." As a result, the next day, the price of Bitcoin plummeted to $78,258, a single-day drop of 12%. Lookonchain's analysis shows that WLFI sold about 12,000 BTC (about $1 billion) before and after the call, which coincided with the peak of market selling pressure.

On March 2, after the Trump administration announced the possibility of exploring crypto assets as national reserves, Eric quickly followed up and called for "long-term holding of cryptocurrencies, and the future is decentralized." Even the tweet announcing the national reserve on Trump X's account that day was closely related to Eric. However, the next day, Ethereum crashed again by 17.5% after rising, and the decline widened to 30% within a week, reaching a low of $1,410. On-chain analysts found that WLFI sold a total of 86,000 ETH (about $235 million) during this period. The huge price difference between the cost price of holdings (US$3,354) and the market price (US$1,550) once again exposed its embarrassing situation of "buying high and selling low". On X, the topic of NeverTrustEric (Never Trust Eric) once exceeded #Bitcoin, and community members began to spontaneously organize the "Eric Call Index" and use it as an early warning signal of market risks.

For a time, WLFI became the target of the market, and the book losses caused by the sell-off exceeded hundreds of millions of dollars, and it was suspected of using derivatives to hedge profits over the counter. WLFI's business model has also been criticized again - WLFI has raised $550 million by issuing governance tokens, but token holders only have voting rights and no dividend rights. The official website clearly states that "purchasing tokens should not be for profit." "This is essentially a capital game that does not need to be responsible to investors." Crypto compliance agency Chainalysis commented that "political families use regulatory gray areas to transform social media influence into financial harvesting tools."

However, this does not affect the continued construction of Trump Tower in Dubai. Eric Trump knows that the crypto world needs the political influence of the Trump family, and he will continue to sell it.