Inside the Crypto Power Circle: Who’s Really Cashing In?

(00:00.332)

Who’s the biggest grifter in the club? We ain’t in. Yeah, the old Jar, George Carlin. It’s a big club and we ain’t in it. I am going to do this podcast in the same way I’ve done some others recently. It’s going to be the we report you decide type of podcast. I am going to lay out facts, lay out facts, and I’m really not going to, I’m going to try my darndest.

not to make any biased commentary either way. I’m going to try to clarify things as best I possibly can, but I really try to stay out of it. I normally give commentary on these things. Either way, I lose. I lose. The super Trumpsters out there hate me and the super libs out there hate me. That’s not good for my algorithms, but you know,

At least I’m not original. mean, You gotta handle that. You know, I’m telling you the truth. You might not like what I have to say, but…

It is what it is. We’re to talk a little bit about what’s been transpiring. It did make the news extensive piece done in the Wall Street Journal. Excellent piece done in the Wall Street Journal. And unfortunately, it’s it’s not really it’s not getting a lot of traction. Very complicated, quite frankly. And I guess there’s just other things that are going on, which are just bigger in the news like Bad Bunny.

But anyway, neither here nor there. Peace on how one generation runs the country. The next cashed in on crypto. And this is talking about some very big power players in Washington, D.C. The Trumps and the Witcofs. Yeah. They’re cashing in the Trump kids and the Witcoff kid cashing.

(02:10.184)

in big time in the crypto sector. The younger wit cough is Eric Witkoff. Can he’s he’s got his little entourage that he travels with and he’s he’s in circles with some of the the biggest people in the crypto industry, the Binance founder that Chang Peng Zhao, who was pardoned by Donald Trump back in October.

Yeah, he’s got all the stuff. He’s got a Richard Malay timepiece, about a half a million bucks, $250,000, rose gold, Patek Philippe on another. I could care less. Fine. You earn it. I could care less. We’ll talk a little bit further about this. Eric Trump is the face of a Bitcoin company where he holds a $90 million stake. Don Jr. and Baron.

Join him as the co-founders of World Liberty. Lotnik, Brandon Lotnik again, that name sound familiar? Yes, 28 year old son of Commerce Secretary Howard Lotnik. again, the Cantor Fitzgerald plays a part in a lot of these crypto deals. It’s all tied in. These are the kids. These are the kids of people that are basically running the country.

this point in time. So far, World Liberty has earned the Trump family at least $1.2 billion in cash. This is in 16 months. This is paper gains of at least 2.25 billion from various crypto holdings. Again, by contrast, it took eight years for President Trump’s real estate, golf and brand empire to throw off that amount of cash between 2010 and 2017.

with costs have earned 200 million from World Liberty. I’m getting I’m facts here. Follow along as best you possibly can. Big Abu Dhabi deal that people are talking about. People are so big deal was before it was an argument. Just okay, just listen. Okay. It’s the first time a foreign government had taken a major ownership stake in an in

(04:36.27)

coming presidents company. Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange. They provided backing for a new world Liberty product at the same time. Zao saw a presidential pardon for his 2023 conviction for failing to maintain internal money laundering controls. Now they’ve said

that you know, again, their fathers, right? know, they’re just kids are kids are running this kids are running this it’s totally independent from what their dads are doing no conflict of interest at all. That’s what is that’s what they’re White House spokeswoman. Yep. Again, Levet, President Trump only acts in the best interest of the American public. White House counsel.

said the president has no involvement in business deals that would implicate his constitutional responsibilities. They also said Steve Witkoff does not participate in any official matters that could impact his financial interests and has divested in World Liberty. World Liberty spokesman said it was a privately held company focused on deploying world class products and services that can benefit the US dollar and the American economy.

There are not and never have been any conflicts of interest at the firm. Okay. Now, okay.

Take a look at what they did here. Again, Witkoffs, Trumps, they’ve been friends for some time. Basically, Witkoff, Eric, Don had a meeting, said the Trump kids were a little upset. They were in a difficult time accessing banks. And basically, they put together this company.

(06:42.254)

They got involved with two internet marketers dabbling in crypto. Okay, the name was Zach Folkman, who created a website called Date Hotter Girls and Chase Hero. And he self-described. He called himself a dirt bag of the internet. And they were running a small crypto project that they later shut down because it got hacked. Now, sat down, Mar-a-Lago, it’s all happened. Okay.

hatched a plan for a crypto venture. And we just became like a band of brothers, Witkoff told the Wall Street Journal. Now, the hero and folkman told the Trump brothers through their ambition to bring decentralized finance, DeFi, DeFi crypto products to people who weren’t savvy traders. Now the Trump kids, they admitted they didn’t understand it and they joked that they’d have to go to MIT to understand it.

but they came around to the appeal of an everyday product that would allow users who like them had lost trust in banks to move and borrow money outside the traditional financial system. they brought their father on board. Baron Trump explained to his dad the mechanics of digital wallets. Okay, now Trump’s involvement.

in World Liberty, with a complete about face from his earlier public stance that it was a scam. Again, you got to understand Trump’s business, okay, most of the money Trump makes is just slapping his name on stuff and collecting royalties. That’s how it operates. Anyway, putting your name on crypto hell of a lot more than on vodka, steaks, or even, you know, condos for crying out loud.

Now, he got a ton of a ton of money in 2024 from the digital currency industry, the crypto industry, because he said he would be a pro Bitcoin president. There was a big if you remember, there’s a big Nashville crypto conference, where he went all in at that point in time. Now, they launched, launched World Liberty named Donald Trump, it’s chief

(09:01.496)

crypto advocate. He is now listed as a co-founder emeritus. And they began selling this is where you have to really start paying attention. began selling a cryptocurrency called WLFI, World Liberty Fi. Okay, it’s called a governance token that gave holders a vote in some of the company’s operations. And they the document published

to advertise this token, said the venture would pioneer a new era of decentralized finance and democratize access to financial opportunities. Now, all of the money from the sale of this token would go straight to the Trumps, Witkoffs, and their co-owners, Folkman and Hero, not the company itself.

Based on disclosure, 75 % of the money from token sales would go to Trump, 12.5 to Witkoff, 12.5 to Folkman and Hero. This is after deducting for operating expenses. The president owns 70 % of that Trump entity where the money goes, while unnamed family members own 30%. This is all presidential disclosures, okay? Zach Witkoff, who was named the chief executive after the election, whined and dined potential.

WLFI investors on a yacht off of Miami. Again, they got some crypto companies, crypto firms to buy in for millions of dollars. Okay, they began.

(10:50.03)

cashing out during the run up to the inauguration. The first cash out and this is where the UAE comes in. Two lieutenants January 16th, 2025. Tanun Bin Zayed Al Nayyan, the UAE’s, well it’s the president, it’s a brother of the president of the UAE, signed a deal to purchase 49 % stake in World Liberty for a half a billion dollars.

Now, again, company really didn’t have any products, right? Upfront installment, 187 million was directed to Trump family entities. 31 million was slated to flow to entities affiliated with the Wicoth family. Okay, this deal didn’t give, sheik Tanoon, any rights to future WLFI token

sale. So that’s just

given money, given money to the Trumps, you’re buying it. Now, two days, two days after this, this is January 18th, Trump and his wife launched a pair of meme coins, the Trump meme coin and the Melania meme coin. This is a separate business partnership. Went through the roof right there, raised to a multi-billion dollar paper value.

Since then, the thing is down what 99%. We don’t know. We don’t know how much money Trump has gotten from the meme coin sales. Now, this past March, World Liberty stopped selling the WLFI token to the public. Now, by that time, the company had said it already had taken in 550 million from token.

(12:52.142)

sales in addition to the UAE money. Now, that whole idea that they came up with all of a sudden disappeared, this decentralized lending product. Yeah, yeah. Instead, they decided to shift directions and again, working, right? People just send it to money for nothing. Development of a dollar pegged stablecoin called USD1. Now,

meme coins and regular cryptocurrencies, you see how much they can fluctuate. Stable coins are supposed to track the value of a real world currency. Now, supposedly this makes them useful to crypto traders who want to shelter their holdings from volatility in the markets, or people want to send money instantaneously around the globe. That’s not going to be volatile.

Now, again, I buy euros pretty often. Not a difficult thing to do. It looks like this is, know, again, this is why I’ve described cryptocurrency in these coins very much in the same breath of money laundering, in essence. In essence. Anyway, like a savings account at a bank, stable coins issuers take crypto traders dollars

and put them into assets like US Treasury bills, the issuer keeps the profits from the interest. Now, this is why I talk about in terms of money laundering. Why would you do that? Why would you take your money? Why would you go out and buy US Treasury bonds? Because that’s essentially what you’re doing and not collect on any of the interest. People are willing to do that.

Why do you think they’re willing to do that? I’m just throwing that out there so you can understand. Again, you own it. You’re not getting it. The world’s largest stablecoin issuer, Tether, reported 10 billion in profit last year from their holdings. 10.

(15:11.961)

billion. World Liberties, a small team of software engineers hired by Folkman and Harrow from various crypto ventures. weren’t involved with the project to develop USD1. Binance deployed the engineers to build the blockchain technology behind that stable coin. In April, Zach Witkoff and Eric flew to Dubai to promote USD1 at a crypto conference.

The pair, once the US Secret Service sealed the room, the pair took to the stage to announce that a state-backed Emirati investment firm would use USD1 to buy a $2 billion stake in Binance. This move would set World Liberty up to earn about $80 million a year from treasuries backing the stable coin.

(16:12.077)

Why would the Emiratis do that?

Why? just, I want you to ask yourself the question. Try to come up with it on your own. Okay? I’ve got multiple ideas. I’m not gonna share. I’m not gonna share these ideas for this. We’re gonna be a re-report, you decide. It’s gonna be a re-report, you think as well. Okay? New Venture aim to ultimately replace the big banks that cut the Trump family off, the two men said on stage. We like to say at World Liberty, pigs get fat.

and hogs get slaughtered. now American Bitcoin. Okay. Something else, Eric Don Jr building a septo crypto separate crypto company known as American Bitcoin. This was February of last year, they invested 1 million each into Dominaria Holdings, which was a former biotech company that was pivoting to finance

They happened to lease office in Trump Tower. Okay, they thought that they could make money in AI-focused computing servers and wanted to launch an entity called American Data Centers. Now that didn’t last long. Weeks later, they changed it, American Data Centers, which owned no data centers.

started merging with another company and said it was gonna go in a different direction, buying and mining Bitcoin. Now that’s the supercomputers out there that process transactions. They called it American Bitcoin and they are the face of the company. Now, American Bitcoin leaned into the Trump tiered star power. And again, that merged again.

(18:10.605)

with a tiny publicly traded former cannabis software firm.

Okay, and if you look at the slide deck, the pitch deck from that whole thing for public investors featured a photo of Eric in front of an American flag, with a quote saying, crypto is the future and American Bitcoin will be the standard. Four months, four months after the Trump brothers formed this data center company, American Bitcoin raised 220 million from undisclosed investors.

valued the company over $1 billion. When it completed the merger listed publicly in September, investors clamored for the stock sending its market capitalization above $5 billion. So we’re hot, you know what, we’ll raise more money. They raised another 134 million, $7 a share, $5 billion valuation. Guess who the investment bank was on that deal? Cantor Fitzgerald.

Damn straight. that, and Cantor also advised on Trump media, the truth social platform. Okay.

Sheralders, okay, so far, okay, we’ll look at this. American Bitcoin, people who bought into that. Two months after listing American Bitcoin stock. What’s the trade? About $1.20. About $1.20 off from $7. Again, it’s okay. Eric Trump made about 90 million on that deal.

(20:00.912)

Again, you gotta follow this as well. World Liberty, it said they’re gonna take over a publicly traded firm, raise money from investors by selling shares, use the funds to buy World Liberty’s own WLFI token. But again, micro strategy, Michael Saylor, make fun of him. That’s a strategy that he uses to buy Bitcoin.

Again, they’re thinking, okay, we can pump up the value of this, get people excited about it. So World Liberty settled on a small NASDAQ listed crypto payments firm called Alt 5 Sigma. said it would use its tokens to buy a controlling stake in Alt 5, which then would turn raised 750 million from investors at a price of $7.50.

Share with cough became chairman all sorts of stuff Again

(21:06.832)

They’re looking to get all of this out. They announced this deal, they’re putting it all together. They rang the bell at the NASDAQ stock exchange. They have their money, $750 million. They buy in to WLFI tokens at 20 cents a piece, 60 % above.

above price a private investor had just recently paid.

Instead of buying though, okay, what’s what’s what Michael Saylor does there at micro strategy. He calls it strategy now He buys the tokens on the open market

He buys the tokens on the open market, obviously making the price go up. What did they do? They basically bought it from themselves and gave themselves the money. Where did that money go?

to the original owners of the company. 500 million to the Trump family, 90 million to the Witkoff family. And even at that point in time, the holders of the coins weren’t able to sell them because they were locked up in they locked in crypto parlance. But it was allowing the Trumps to cash out.

(22:45.134)

Now, this alt five stock price, three weeks after it came out, people started dumping it.

people have basically gotten out. Alt 5’s got new owners now. Had a tough time integrating the USD1 stablecoin. No USD1 transactions have ever been processed on its payment platform. Again, people are leaving the company. Departure their chief executive, acting chief executive, chief financial officer, chief operating officer.

and a board member who chaired the audit committee. They’re probably hiding somewhere. Honestly, they’re probably in Moldova if they’re smart. Any investor who held on was down 75%. WLFI has slumped to 10 cents. Again, people are not allowed to sell.

For whatever reason, Trump say their coins are locked up.

(24:01.752)

Okay, now what? Well, Steve Witkoff, Steve Witkoff, negotiating the Ukraine deal. He was actually with them, okay, Ukrainian delegation in Miami. Days later, he returned to Dubai, okay, Zach, to attend the Binance Blockchain Week event.

where he told the crowd that World Liberty would soon roll out more crypto products based by real estate, oil, gas. Zao, Zao the one that Trump pardoned came out with this shirt, orange high tops with emblazoned with the words Trump crypto president. Afterward, Binance unveiled a USD1 booster program.

that offer generous rewards to users for holding the stablecoin on its platform.

(25:04.176)

This new Binance boost again spark traders put another three billion into USD one Meaning the stable coins cash pile could grow can now generate 200 million a year in revenues for World Liberty Again they’re looking to hold some world liberty Forum here and that’s coming up soon That’s that’s what I have for you so far

I know I’m gonna get both sides fair. I get both sides the coin Here and again, I’m not the only one that’s covered it Actually recently actually recently had Andrew McCarthy over at National Review doing a lengthy piece on all this but also talking about the Biden family and all the Corruption that was there because that was all over the news I mean conservatives rightfully upset

investigations, James Comer. They were going to hold member Hunter Biden in contempt going after him. They even open an impeachment inquiry and a report on the conspiracy to monetize Joe Biden’s Office of Public Trust to enrich the Biden family. The sum generated in this document over several years of Biden’s self-dealing was over $27 million.

$27 million, lot of money.

lot of money, not Trump money by any stretch of the imagination. And again,

(26:49.584)

Does it really, I’m just throwing this out there, I’m gonna ask you the question, can answer yourself. Does it really matter?

It’s a really matter. Again, it’s a very big club that you and I are not, know what I wanna be. Let’s just be honest. Know what I want to be. So again.

You, I gave the facts, do with them what you will. Think about it, contemplate and reflect. Watchdogonwallstreet.com.