Wall Street celebrities and government officials gathered at Mar-a-Lago, with Trump family project WFLI acting as a crypto lobbyist.

Written by: Li Dan

Source: Wall Street News

Despite a significant drop in cryptocurrencies this year, the Trump family appears to be trying to salvage their image. The cryptocurrency platforms they support are reshaping Wall Street's relationship with digital assets.

On Wednesday, March 19th, Eastern Time, World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency platform co-founded by the Trump family, hosted a conference at Mar-a-Lago. Financial industry executives, government officials, and crypto industry figures gathered to highlight how virtual assets have become both a policy priority and a source of family profits during Trump's second term.

The World Liberty Financial event attracted approximately 500 attendees, including Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon. The former cryptocurrency skeptic revealed at the event that he holds a small amount of Bitcoin, marking a shift in his stance. Attendees also included Changpeng Zhao, co-founder of Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange, executives from the NYSE and Nasdaq, and several current and former financial regulators.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, by 2025, the first year of Trump's second term, his family's wealth will increase by more than $1 billion due to new crypto businesses—more than three times the value of Mar-a-Lago itself. World Liberty Financial, co-founded by Trump's eldest and second sons and the son of presidential envoy Witkov, is a key pillar of this rapidly accumulating wealth.

This gathering reflects a profound shift in attitudes toward cryptocurrencies from the US Congress to top executives of domestic financial giants. Despite the sharp decline in crypto asset prices under the Trump administration's more favorable policy stance, Wall Street institutions are actively positioning themselves to profit from a potential recovery in crypto company IPOs.

A Shift in Wall Street's Stance: From Skepticism to Embrace

For years, Wall Street executives have been criticizing cryptocurrencies. The most notable example occurred in 2022 when JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon likened the asset class to "pet stones."

Media reports indicate that David Soothill was on a private jet when the aforementioned news about Dimon broke, and he expressed surprise that Dimon could make such flippant comments without consequence. Soothill himself has previously expressed skepticism about crypto products, but has been more restrained in public statements, having previously called cryptocurrencies speculative investments lacking real-world use cases.

At an event at Mar-a-Lago this Wednesday, David Solomon seemed to be taking cryptocurrencies more seriously. Solomon told the audience that he holds a “very, very limited” amount of Bitcoin and stated that he is not a “great Bitcoin prophet,” but merely an observer of the asset.

Su Dewei's stance could be beneficial to his business. Wall Street institutions are actively positioning themselves to benefit from the resurgence of crypto IPOs, after these companies faced a stringent regulatory environment during the Biden administration.

In addition, there are important client relationships to consider: the Witkoff family has business dealings with Goldman Sachs. David Soothill said at the event, "I'm here because Alex Witkoff (Witkoff's son) called me. When important clients of the company call me and ask me to do something, I'll make time for them."

Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman and NYSE President Lynn Martin were also invited to attend. Both exchanges have companies backed by the Trump family listed on their exchanges. In the past year, Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and second son, Eric Trump, have also visited these two exchanges to participate in the opening ceremony.

Although Donald Trump Jr. positioned World Liberty as a challenge to traditional finance, the conference still attracted other Wall Street veterans, including hedge fund managers Marc Lasry, Daniel Loeb, and Philippe Laffont.

Jenny Johnson, CEO of asset management firm Franklin Templeton, called Bitcoin a "disruptor" in 2022, saying it distracted people from the disruptive potential of blockchain technology that underpins virtual assets. However, speaking at Mar-a-Lago, she expressed her vision of collaboration between cryptocurrency companies and traditional financial institutions.

Johnson said, "For me, I've been trying to understand how all of this has evolved, especially at the intersection of traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi)."

A Gathering of Government Officials: The Boundary Between Regulation and Business

This event highlights World Liberty's ability to leverage its connections at the highest levels of the U.S. government, including officials responsible for regulating crypto assets.

Government officials were visible throughout the resort, including Kelly Loeffler, head of the Small Business Administration, and Michael Selig, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, who helps regulate the crypto industry. Selig's former acting chairman, Caroline Pham, was also in the crowd; she recently accepted a position at digital asset company MoonPay.

In response to questions about government officials' participation in the event, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly stated that President Trump had "no conflict of interest." White House Counsel David Warrington said in a statement, "The President has no business dealings that may involve his constitutional duties. President Trump is fulfilling his constitutional duties in an ethical manner, and any other suggestion is either uninformed or malicious."

Eric Trump said on Wednesday, "It's ironic that the whole world has come full circle. Some people in this room may have been on our side, who closed our bank accounts and kicked us out of their big banks just because my father wore a hat that said 'Make America Great Again'."

Faced with questions about potential conflicts of interest in new investments—including World Liberty Financial—the Trump brothers have repeatedly emphasized that they are private businessmen.

Rapid Expansion: Strong Supporters and Controversial Deals

Bitcoin's market capitalization has shrunk by nearly half since it hit an all-time high in October 2025, severely impacting companies in the industry, but World Liberty Financial continues to expand at a pace that almost everyone in the industry expected.

According to data provider CoinMarketCap, its USD1 stablecoin—a virtual asset designed to preserve the value of the US dollar—currently has a circulation of over $5 billion, making it one of the world's largest stablecoins. The company has applied for a banking license and announced the launch of a new lending platform. It is also promoting a Trump-branded Maldives hotel project, allowing investors to purchase virtual tokens associated with the project's development.

Even before launching any products, World Liberty Financial had already attracted strong backers. It was reported that in January 2025, days before Trump's inauguration, an investment vehicle linked to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi's national security advisor and one of the most powerful figures in the Gulf region, purchased a 49% stake in the company for $500 million, a fact subsequently confirmed by a company spokesperson.

The report sparked strong protests from Democratic lawmakers, with some calling for a Treasury Department investigation into the transaction.

In an interview, Donald Trump Jr. stated that World Liberty was unfairly targeted, with other financiers frequently accepting similar investments. "Because it was us, 'Oh, this is the problem,'" he said.

World Liberty also has ties to other foreign companies. According to a previous Bloomberg report, its flagship stablecoin was developed with the help of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. Binance's Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to federal charges of failing to implement proper anti-money laundering procedures for the platform. He resigned from the company and was sentenced to four months in prison. President Trump pardoned Zhao last year.

During Wednesday's event, Zhao Changpeng interacted with other high-profile guests and posted on social media that he "learned a lot" from the speech of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman.

The Trump family's vision for a stablecoin: "An upgraded version of the dollar"

The Trump family's move to launch USD1 breaks the tacit acceptance of the US presidential family's monopoly on the national currency since the dollar's inception in 1792.

On Wednesday, during a break at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's eldest and second sons explained to the media their reasons for believing that the dollar needs to be modernized.

World Liberty Financial advertises USD1 on its website as an improvement over the official US dollar, with the brand slogan "an upgraded version of the dollar," and claims that this stablecoin is "still the dollar, but for a new era."

Donald Trump Jr., Trump's eldest son, argued, "This will actually protect the dollar's hegemony. There are crypto companies that are among the top five buyers in the world. This will actually stabilize the dollar and do all the things we need to do." He believes that the system of the U.S. federal government and Wall Street's big banks is simply not flexible or innovative enough to drive the necessary changes.

Eric Trump, Trump's second son, said, "As Americans, we will lead the way. Who are you going to leave this to, JPMorgan Chase? Are you going to leave it to the federal government?" He believes Wall Street is too complacent and therefore faces technological disruption.

However, what drove them to start their businesses was not an inventor's passion for creating better products, but a strong sense of revenge. Trump's son believes the broader financial system was part of the establishment that unjustly excluded them after the Capitol riots of January 6, 2021, when banks generally refused to do business with the Trump family.

Donald Trump Jr. stated, "We didn't get into the cryptocurrency space because we were at the forefront. We did it out of necessity. They basically forced us to do it." He called the traditional banking system a "Ponzi scheme."

Eric Trump recalled that the period when his father left the White House between two presidential terms was a traumatic time for the family. "These were commercial buildings, residential buildings, golf courses all over the world. They weren't political entities, but they took those accounts from us like dogs. We couldn't pay our suppliers, we couldn't pay our employees. So we said, 'Look, there has to be a better way.'"

Eric Trump stated, "We almost had this kind of retaliation, and suddenly we started pushing an agenda, which is great. Our agenda is to modernize the financial system so that this kind of thing will never happen to anyone again."