Donald Trump Jr. reveals he’s working on a ‘huge’ crypto project

In another sign that the Trump family is increasingly embracing crypto, Donald Trump Jr. recently announced that he is working on a decentralized finance project to “take on” big banks.

Don Jr. and his brother Eric were tweeting about dropping something “big” in the crypto space before the former president’s eldest son explained on his podcast why a new DeFi project might be needed now.

“What we want to do is take a big chunk of the banking world. I think there’s a lot of inequality in terms of only certain people being able to get financing,” Don Jr. said on his subscription podcast. “This concept of decentralized finance is obviously very attractive to people like me who have been separated from their bank or can’t get insurance or anything like that or a mortgage.”

Now, to be fair, there is at least some precedent for conservative figures facing banking exit issues. Nigel Farage, the British conservative who led the country’s Brexit movement, saw his accounts at Coutts, the private bank of NatWest, closed last year. He later said he was rejected by about a dozen banks because of his political views. As Coinage has reported , many right-wing truck drivers in Canada have seen their funds frozen after protesting during the pandemic.

But by most accounts, none of the Trump children appear to have had trouble getting a mortgage. Last year, the Daily Beast reported that Don Jr. took out a $4.8 million mortgage to buy a nearly $10 million home in Florida. Eric Trump also reportedly took out a mortgage of more than $2 million from Valley National Bank.

However, Don Jr. seems pretty convinced about the opportunities DeFi offers over traditional banking. He also seems pretty convinced that it’s the hottest opportunity in crypto. He said he doesn’t plan to sell other crypto tokens or “memecoins,” which many in the space have rushed to speculate about after Trump hinted at his projects.

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A meme unrelated to what Trump was working on skyrocketed, then dropped 95% after the rumors were denied.

“It’s too early to get into the details, but obviously what we’re talking about is much bigger,” Don Jr. said.

Former President Donald Trump also made several forays into crypto, including selling his own non-fungible token projects to raise millions of dollars. He was also the first major presidential candidate to accept crypto donations in currencies other than bitcoin. And now, his sons appear to be delving even deeper into the technology.

Still, many across the aisle remain skeptical that any of this is just a poster. Democratic Congressman Wiley Nickel (D-NC) was perhaps the loudest voice in opposition. He was booed at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville for criticizing the former President’s past statements on crypto, including when he called Bitcoin a “fraud.”

“He’s just someone trying to stay out of jail,” Rep. Nickel said. “I think he’ll say anything and do anything, and I don’t think that commitment is particularly genuine.”