Editors Note: On February 26, Denver time, Donald Trump Jr., co-founder of World Liberty Finance (WLFI), attended the ETH Denver peripheral event DeFi World 2025 conference and discussed crypto regulatory policies, the future of DeFi, and the role of the United States with important guests from the crypto industry. His core views are as follows:
Necessity of regulatory framework : The cryptocurrency and DeFi sectors need a clear regulatory framework to define what can and cannot be done. He believes that the lack of clear regulation will force companies to go offshore and miss opportunities, and calls on the United States to formulate reasonable regulations to ensure investor safety and industry development.
The United States should lead the financial future : The United States should play a leading role in the financial future, rather than driving companies overseas through excessive regulation. He advocates that the United States should lead the global development of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology by enacting sensible regulations.
Financial democratization : Through projects such as World Liberty Finance, traditional finance is combined with decentralized finance to provide liquidity, stability and transparency to more people, thereby achieving financial democratization. He criticized the opacity and exclusivity of the existing financial system and believed that cryptocurrency and blockchain technology could provide equal financial opportunities for more people.
Technology and Innovation : He is confident in the potential of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, which will revolutionize the financial industry. He particularly emphasizes the importance of transparency and on-chain operations, believing that this can eliminate the opacity and corruption in traditional finance.
Advice for novices : It is recommended that novices start with small investments, gradually understand the cryptocurrency field, and avoid over-leverage. He emphasized the importance of education and participation, believing that only by truly participating in it can we better understand this rapidly developing field.
Expectations for the future : We are excited about the future of World Liberty Finance and its partners. We believe that by integrating various technologies and projects, we can bring revolutionary changes to the global financial system and provide financial freedom and opportunities to more people.
Odaily Planet Daily s North American reporter jk participated in the event and edited the original conversation as follows~
Q: The United States is a major leader in the cryptocurrency space. What kind of policies do you think are needed?
Trump Jr.: I think the most important thing right now is that everyone needs a regulatory framework to clarify what can and cannot be done. When we entered this world, our family also participated in it through projects like WLFI. Its amazing that even if you have access to the best lawyers and experts in the world, no one really knows what you can and cant do. Few people are willing to face the excessive abuses in the cryptocurrency field by agencies such as the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). So, I believe this is the future of finance. We want to democratize it, but people do need this regulatory framework to move forward and understand what can be done. If we dont do this, the opportunity cost of companies being forced to go offshore is huge. I think its ridiculous. We need to create a regulatory framework that makes people feel safe and ensure that they can invest with confidence. I will no longer be in office after noon on January 20, but during the transition, we spent a lot of time bringing in people who understand not only traditional finance (TradFi), but also really understand cryptocurrency and decentralized finance (DeFi) in order to develop a reasonable regulatory framework and laws .
I think the problem Ive seen in Washington, D.C. over the last few decades is that the people making the decisions often know nothing about the subject matter theyre legislating on. Theyve just been there longer, so they have seniority, and they may be sitting on a committee. I went into real estate after graduating from Wharton in 2000, and I saw the financial crisis of 2007-2008. I saw people on those financial committees asking what seemed like pointed questions, but in reality they knew nothing about what was being discussed. If you really learn about these topics, you realize, my goodness, these people are making trillions of dollars of decisions without any basis for understanding. So we need a regulatory framework that is guided by people who really know whats going on, whether its the new SEC chairman or Scott at the Treasury Department, et cetera.
I helped come up with ideas in the crypto space, like getting people like David SAS involved. He really understands this world. Initially we were only talking about AI, but at dinner I realized, he’s one of the greatest minds in tech, why not get him in the crypto space as well? So we put together a team that really understands what we’re doing so that you don’t just get a bunch of regulations and roadblocks. This is a really critical opportunity where we can create something that the industry really needs. I think we have enough people who understand the industry to do that, rather than just because people make decisions without actual knowledge and the solution is worse than the problem.
To be honest, I think that over the last few years under the Biden administration, the SEC and the DOJ have put up so many barriers that have been almost destructive and even predatory in an attempt to stifle the incredible innovation that is cryptocurrency. The same is true for DeFi and other related technologies. Now, I think we have people who can put in place the framework, who understand this space, and can open the floodgates and let in people who really want to grow in the United States. They just want a reasonable environment in the United States and not worry about going to jail for 25 years for some nonsense. So Im very excited about the actions that the new administration will take. Im proud to be part of the team that helps move this forward.
My father would ultimately make those decisions himself, but he understood how critical this was to the future of finance. I think this is the future of finance. The United States should be at the forefront , not putting up all kinds of barriers to push these companies overseas. Im very excited for those of us in government that we can do this correctly, make it meaningful, and dominate this industry for the foreseeable future, if not forever.
You launched your own cryptocurrency platform, WLFI. Can you tell us what is the vision and mission of this platform? How will it revolutionize the DeFi and TradFi space?
Trump Jr.: I think the real vision is to combine DeFi and traditional finance and make them blend into one. Everyone wants access to liquidity, but not everyone has access to it. I learned this through my experience in politics over the past few years. A few months ago, I made some remarks online saying that the current financial system feels like a giant Ponzi scheme. The reason I said that is because when I entered the financial world after graduating from Wharton, I worked in real estate and finance in New York. As a Trump family member, I may not have realized it, but I was at the top of this financial pyramid. It was basically a Ponzi scheme, but I didnt know it at the time because I could reach anyone on the phone and get what I wanted. Because of who we are and because of our balance sheet, all of this access was easy. But when we entered the political field, all of this access suddenly disappeared.
I realized how undemocratic the financial system is. As long as you do what they say, everything is fine. But if you dont, then a lot of people in the U.S., and even around the world, are discriminated against. So I think the idea is to bridge that gap and provide liquidity to people who have never had the opportunity. I think there are a lot of amazing things we can do. There are no bond products or treasury assets in the crypto space right now, and combining those two worlds, as I mentioned before, we need the right team to do this, which will bring liquidity and more importantly stability.
The real goal is to democratize finance. I think crypto is doing a great job of that, but there are still a lot of pitfalls. This space is still very new, and Im sure there are some people in the room who have been in this space for 15 years, so its not new to them. But I really feel like were on the verge of a major breakthrough. So combining those two worlds is what were trying to do and provide great products for people to use. I feel like a lot of people are artificially excluded from the traditional financial world, and they dont have access to these resources because they dont meet certain criteria or are not considered sexy or cool enough. So Im really excited about being able to really democratize finance. As someone who was at the top of this artificial Ponzi scheme, I quickly realized what it felt like to be at the bottom of this scam. I realized that America is not what its about, and financial freedom is not what its about. So were really excited to be in this space, grow with you all, and help all of these great products come together.
Regarding World Free Finance, it has recently reached cooperation with many partners, from Chile to Tron to Ondo Finance. I want to ask you what kind of partnerships is World Free Finance looking for?
Trump Jr.: Similar to the first question, we want to combine the worlds of traditional finance and cryptocurrency. We want to be an integrator that brings all the great things together and were not going to do it all alone. Were looking for partners with all kinds of great projects. You mentioned some, but there are a lot more. We need these projects and their wisdom. We have to bring all of this great technology and great minds and great ideas together to, again, bridge that gap. I think if we can do that, if we can integrate, we can create the stability thats necessary for this space to take off. We can simplify some of the complexity and make it more accessible to the average American and people around the world. So were looking for partnerships with some of these top projects to get everyone working in the same direction and really transform the entire industry.
I think youre going to see a lot more great announcements in the days, weeks, and months ahead. And like I said, its been awesome to see all the people who understand this reaching out to us and thinking that we can be the catalyst to bring these great ideas together. I think thats very foundational and the most important part.
Blockchain and centralized finance have brought many solutions to the traditional financial market. What problems and challenges do you think it solves in traditional finance?
Trump Jr.: I think we need to create utility. A lot of these ideas are great, but if youve been in this space for a long time, you have access to the best people and minds. But for the average person, we have to try to create utility. I think there are a lot of solutions, and everybody wants to have that liquidity. People need to be able to get in and out of all of these areas. So I think the biggest solution that we can try to create is to create that utility, to bring all of the great partners together, and I think thats going to do it. Its going to take time.
Right now, it all feels like “inside game,” but at the end of the day, it’s about creating utility. You can create a democratization of finance and bring other people into this space. As I mentioned before, this space used to be the exclusive domain of the rich and powerful. If we can create this utility and get everyone to actually use it, make basic transactions easy, and bring liquidity into the market, it’s going to be a real game changer. You see other places competing for this as well.
I interviewed the leader of the Venezuelan opposition earlier, and she won over 90% of the vote. Shes a big supporter of cryptocurrency because even with 90% of the vote, they were able to silence her, shut down her business, cut off her communications. I think once you create the utility, create the electronic signature, put it on chain, you have transparency. Theres a lot we can do to level the playing field for people who dont have access. I think its very exciting. I think its a game changer not only for the industry, but for the world and freedom itself.
There may be some people out there who are not happy with that answer, but listen, weve seen in the United States what they can do. If you dont buy into their narrative, theyre going to go after you. They did it when my father was first president, and even though he was the most powerful man in the world, at least on paper, they could cut you off. They can only push a narrative and exploit that bias. Even in the United States, you would think its impossible, but you see what they do, you see their attacks on a lot of people, you see their incarceration of big names in the early cryptocurrency space, like Ross Ulbricht, who paved the way for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. It doesnt matter that they dont like any of that.
We are moving toward a world that is independent of power , and that is very scary for a lot of dictatorships. I think some of those regimes may be closer to us than we think.
The revolution in the DeFi space started in 2020, and since then it has evolved from staking, re-staking, various innovative DEXs to modular DEXs, etc. But this space is still very new and there is a lot of growth opportunity. There are still a lot of people trying to understand the basics. So, I was wondering from your personal experience, what advice would you give to those who are just entering this space? How would you recommend them to get started and get feedback?
Trump Jr.: Yeah, theres new stuff coming out every day. I think what you need to do is start reading the news . Im saying dont read the fake news. You have to have a diverse set of perspectives on this space. You cant just read what one account is saying on X, they could be promoting something. I think you need to read everything you can about DeFi, start educating yourself, and itll make everything a little less scary.
Start small, dont invest too much money. Dont overexpose yourself. For someone just starting out, invest $100 into Bitcoin, or $1,000. Once youre actually involved, not just watching, even if its a small amount, youll start to pay attention to this space. All of a sudden, youll see that its not so mysterious anymore. If you explain this to a baby boomer, theyll probably be very interested. Theres a lot of mystery in this space, but if you start to try it and get involved, even if its a small amount, youll start to understand it. I know when I started investing some real money, all of a sudden I started paying attention to everything. Once you start paying attention to everything and reading about it, you start to tell whats real and whats bullshit. You realize that there are people who are promoting something just for their own benefit. In this way, you become more alert.
I saw my 16-year-old son start playing with some memes. Its amazing. You see a kid suddenly get interested in finance, he puts some money in, starts talking about liquidity. All of a sudden hes like a banker who worked at Goldman Sachs for 20 years. Because he put money in, he starts paying attention and getting involved. Its amazing. I think for people, this is the future of finance. So even if youve been in this space for a while, youre still in the early stages.
As this space grows, for a young entrepreneur, you can learn a lot by putting some money in and being a part of it. Its the best way to understand the basics of business and entrepreneurship. I come from a real estate family, and weve been in real estate for a long time. You cant let a 15-year-old kid play real estate because everything is too slow. We live in a world of instant gratification. If you play Meme Coin, its not always instant gratification, sometimes its the opposite. When he starts paying attention and putting money in, its no longer a theoretical thing, he starts to really understand it. For everyone, young or old, to get into this space, put some money in, dont over-leverage, dont bet on the house, but start to participate in it. When you do that, I think the learning curve goes up like a rocket. It was for him, and it was for me. Just going from being a spectator to being a participant is really key. Were in a very early stage, which is awesome.
For him, I started encouraging him to do that because I was so excited to see, the stock market is great, but you buy some stock and sit there for 15 years, it might appreciate, but its not that rapid, its not that dramatic. I think in 18 months, he learned more that way than he did at Wharton. It was amazing. So I say, get into this, dont do anything crazy, but start playing with something that youre willing to lose because it could happen. But just being a participant instead of a spectator, your senses become sharper, and thats critical.
Last question. What inspires you? What are you most excited about coming up this year?
Trump Jr.: Honestly, I think the most exciting thing for me is WLFI. It’s been so fun to see how this all plays out. I’ve been a “hard asset real estate guy” my whole life and have also been involved in politics over the last few years because I really believe in freedom, and I think freedom was really in danger at one time or another. It’s been very exciting to be able to do things differently and try to put everything on-chain.
I think people should know, Hey, you own stock in a company whose CEO tells you its great, but the CEO is quietly selling. I think thats a problem. So I think its really important to create a product thats as transparent and as clear as possible. Put it on-chain so that people understand that if youre buying or selling, were going to talk about it. Were going to show you what were doing so that its not about insiders and outsiders anymore. Were moving away from the traditional financial model where I know some bankers are making seven figures a year and they have great jobs, but I dont even know what theyre doing. Weve been talking about what were doing with the WLFI Strategic Reserve, and were going to launch a lot of other great products. Being able to come out of a world of hard asset real estate and get into this space where we buy and hold for the long term. I think we believe theres huge potential in this space.
I spend a lot of time making sure my fathers administration has nothing to do with what we do. Theyre independent and separate from the family business, but we can create that clarity so that other people understand, and hopefully we can run it in a way that other people see that transparency. They see what were doing on-chain, and it takes the mystery out of these things. We can really create a democratized financial platform where everyone has a chance to win, everyone has a chance to thrive, and everyone knows what everyone else is doing.
Remove some of the opacity that can exist in the world. So Im really excited about it. For those who havent been following, check out the X account at WLFI. Everybodys trying to do something, saying theyre doing something else. Unless you hear it directly from my mouth, my brothers mouth, or the mouths of other great members of the team, take your information from there. Im really excited about this project, with the great people that weve gathered, not only the people on the team, but other partners and great entrepreneurs. And as you mentioned before, and others who are coming on board, they seem to be contacting us every day.
I think we really have the ability to bring all the great minds and ideas and technologies together to fight for what we believe in. If we want the world to see that, I think when we do that, these things will take off. More people will get involved and stop watching from the sidelines because theyll be able to really see whats going on out there.
Im really excited about it. Every day we talk about this project, some people are going to do the wrong thing, but theres a lot more to come. So Im really excited to be a part of this industry and really take on the responsibility of helping to reshape the future of finance. Its going to be incredible.
(Question from Rock) Any insider information on sovereign crypto funds? Does WLFI have one?
Trump Jr.: Regarding the fund, I know this is a transition period. I have to be clear, I am not in the administration.
David S, whos the head of the crypto space, understands this space. He understands that in the world that we live in, you can see these things happening on day one. These ideas of multi-billion and multi-hundred-billion-dollar potential. So you can see this space, oh gosh, it didnt happen at 12 noon on January 20th. But these things take time, they dont magically appear. You need to do these things right. So I know there are people who are watching all of these things.
I know there are people in the administration who absolutely believe in this. But you have to understand that as much as you might want to do something right away, you have to work within the framework of reality. So I think its definitely something you might see in the near future. Im not in the administration right now, but I know there are discussions about getting this done. Its not something you can just snap your fingers and magically appear. Youre dealing with huge amounts of money that have to go through the proper channels. Washington, D.C., doesnt operate in a reasonable way, its not transparent, and you cant see whats really going on. Those who are working against you in the shadows.
If youve been paying attention over the last nine years, you may have noticed this. So all of these ideas have been discussed. I have to keep to myself. You know, Im not going to get the Hunter Biden treatment. Theyre the ones who believe in this. They understand the value of it. They understand that America has to be on the forefront and not encourage an environment that pushes people away. So I think youll see these things, but if youre disappointed that it didnt happen in the first moment, Im sorry, but thats not realistic either.
Weve always followed the rules of the world that we live in. So I think youre going to see a lot of things. I think youre going to see a lot of exciting movement, not just in the DeFi space, but in crypto and blockchain technology. I think a lot of these things are going to be utilized. Theyre going to create some incredible things that people can use and create, and again fill in some of that utility thats really missing.
As you know, these things dont happen overnight. You need to give it some time. But I think youre going to see some incredible things. I think ultimately, the people who have the confidence that were talking about these things are going to be very satisfied. You just have to wait a little longer.
Thats awesome, I must say. Im really glad you didnt get treated like Hunter Biden did.
Trump Jr.: My father raised me a little differently. I was doing this when I was Hunters age. The Democrats will try it again.
