Taking stock of the Trump family’s investment preferences in Web3: Will the MEME & DeFi track usher in another spring?

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Here is the English translation of the text, with the specified terms retained and not translated: The crypto industry is expected to face more opportunities and challenges in the coming years. Author: HashKey Exchange I. What does Trump's inauguration mean for the crypto industry? Since December, the "Trump trade" has set the entire market on fire. For the crypto industry, the focus is now on the extent to which Trump will fulfill his campaign promises. During the power transition vacuum, Trump quickly nominated several key positions, and these appointees will determine the direction of US and global crypto policies over the next four years. This means that Trump's inauguration will truly change the current industry landscape, and regardless of the extent to which his policies are implemented, it portends new, greater opportunities for the industry, as well as the policy uncertainties that come with it. Before Trump officially takes office, let's first take stock of which officials have been nominated for key positions and how they view and position themselves in relation to the crypto industry. In the US political system, the President's cabinet is mainly composed of two parts: formal cabinet members who require Senate confirmation (such as the Secretary of State and other major department heads), and cabinet-level officials who do not require Senate confirmation (such as the Chief of Staff and National Security Advisor). Currently, the Trump administration has the following crypto-friendly figures directly serving in or influencing crypto policy: [Image showing key Trump administration figures related to crypto] From the above, the most closely watched entity is the Office of Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency, which is reportedly responsible for formulating the regulatory framework for the entire crypto industry, liaising with the SEC, CFTC, and Congress. The Crypto Advisory Council, which claims to be composed of 24 crypto CEOs, is said to provide policy recommendations. According to Trump's promises, the following new policies are worth noting: 1) Make the US the global crypto capital 2) Stop the crackdown on cryptocurrencies upon taking office 3) Prevent the development of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) 4) Establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve 5) Dismiss the SEC chairman 6) Prevent the sale of Bitcoin held by the US government 7) Use Bitcoin to solve the US debt 8) Establish a more comprehensive crypto policy 9) Establish a Crypto Advisory Council Looking at Trump's personnel appointments during the transition period, he has at least completed steps 5 and 9. The crypto backgrounds of the promoted officials, from the newly established advisory body to the Senate Cryptocurrency Committee to the SEC chairman replacement, at least indicate that Trump is indeed carrying out his campaign promises. For the crypto industry, at least on the regulatory front, on the one hand, the previously suppressed policies may be gradually relaxed, and on the other hand, more comprehensive legislation will further promote the industry's mainstream adoption. II. What information do the Trump family's initial project layouts reveal? Trump's change of attitude towards cryptocurrencies in his second term has indeed provided a huge boost to the entire industry. Not only has he set up a cabinet-level advisory team in the government, but his family has also begun to venture into crypto investments, which also provides some foresight for the subsequent regulatory relaxation. At the beginning of 2025, the biggest explosive project in the industry is undoubtedly the MEME coin TRUMP, which was personally released by Trump on his Official Twitter. The project broke through a $30 billion market cap in a single day, once again creating an industry legend of overnight wealth. The significance and value of Trump personally launching a coin is not limited to just adding another celebrity MEME to the market. To a certain extent, it reflects that Trump's support and involvement in the crypto industry may exceed market expectations. Especially after witnessing the rapid explosion of the TRUMP token's market value, he may further become an important supporter for Trump and his cabinet departments to promote the crypto industry's rapid normalization and regulatory relaxation, which is undoubtedly a major positive for the crypto industry. In addition, the potential impact of this Trump token issuance is that the on-chain trading volume and the legend of overnight wealth may directly put competitive pressure on centralized exchanges, making the industry's competition more intense. In addition to Trump's personal launch of the MEME coin, the Trump family's most important project currently is World Liberty Financial (WLFI). Although the project's website states that Trump and his family members/companies are not employees of the project, Trump's three sons are all given the title of "Ambassador," and Trump's close ally Steve Witkof (nominated as Middle East Special Envoy) and his son are both co-founders of the project. In addition, the advisory team also includes partners and CEOs from well-known investment institutions such as Polychain and Scroll. While the project legally separates itself from the Trump family, this kind of promotion, including Trump's several sons tirelessly promoting the project, makes it difficult for the market not to interpret it as a Trump family project. The WLFI project has done relatively comprehensive legal work, using various means to avoid current regulations, such as making the tokens non-transferable and raising funds under SEC Regulation D Rule 506(c), which has reduced the project's compliance risks to a minimum. The project is still in public fundraising, with a total token supply of 20 billion, of which 5.49 billion have been sold so far. Due to the current non-transferability of the tokens, the overall progress is not as expected. In terms of specific operations, the initial information provided is that it is a DeFi project, mainly based on Aave to build decentralized lending, but there is still no clear specific operation page yet. Another noteworthy thing is that since late November, the WLFI project has started to gradually buy a large amount of tokens, and due to its Trump endorsement, this has made the token purchases by the project a new market trend indicator. Overall, the areas and tracks involved in the project are as follows: [Image showing the tokens held by the WLFI project] From the tokens held, we can see that in addition to BTC, ETH, and stablecoins, the WLFI project's portfolio is mainly DeFi-related tokens, due to its own DeFi positioning. In terms of trading, in addition to Coinbase, the main operations are conducted on CowSwap. From the team configuration, we can also see that the core team of WLFI is mostly from the DeFi background. For example, the technical lead Corey Caplan previously worked at the DeFi project Dolomite, and the chief developer Bogdan Purnavel was previously a developer at the DeFi project Dough Finance. From the recent series of actions, whether in terms of personnel configuration or token asset purchases, the WLFI project of the Trump family still focuses on the DeFi sector, which points to the expectation of some more relaxed policies around the DeFi sector.

III. The Impact of the Trump Family Project on the DeFi Track?

Trump's MEME coin undoubtedly brings a huge imagination space to the market, and the president's personal involvement in issuing coins is unprecedented in history. Putting aside the consideration of interests, at least the overall tone points to a relaxed regulatory environment for the entire industry's development in the next four years. If we further analyze the specific operation of this project, we can see that it is not a hasty coin issuance, but has made full preparations in the entire legal framework, compliance, and institutional cooperation. The certainty and super narrative of the president's coin issuance are unique, which has also created a unique on-chain market, but its support for the industry is currently limited to relaxed expectations. In the long run, its sustainability remains to be verified, and the Trump family hopes to build WLFI into a sustainable project.

From the series of operations and subsequent investments of the WLFI project, it can be roughly sorted out that the project has made some pre-emptive responses based on regulatory compliance. Combining the new DeFi tax regulations proposed by the US Internal Revenue Service by the end of December 2024, it can be inferred that there may be a relatively systematic legislative and regulatory framework for DeFi in 2025, although it may not be as strict as the previous proposals from departments such as the US Internal Revenue Service. However, the foreseeable situation is that the compliance of DeFi will become an important measure that may be implemented in 2025, such as KYC (WLFI project also requires KYC), anti-money laundering, and anti-terrorist financing.

However, from a more optimistic scenario, the WLFI project, as the first non-MEME project promoted by the Trump family, on the one hand, shows their optimism about the DeFi track, especially the future growth potential of DeFi; on the other hand, from a policy perspective, its compliance architecture has been designed and considered relatively comprehensively from the beginning, which means that the project clearly knows that after Trump takes office, the relaxation of regulations and the comprehensive implementation of compliance may be promoted in parallel, which will be beneficial for the entire DeFi to enter the mainstream vision.

From Trump's personal coin issuance, the composition of his cabinet, and the DeFi projects launched by his family, it is at least clear that Trump's supportive attitude towards the entire cryptocurrency industry is relatively clear. However, the extent of his regulatory relaxation is still uncertain, and the market will also constantly adjust its expectations around these new policies. But at least before the 2027 US midterm elections, the resistance to the implementation of many of Trump's policies will be significantly reduced, which is a key favorable period for DeFi and the entire cryptocurrency industry.

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Disclaimer: The content above is only the author's opinion which does not represent any position of Followin, and is not intended as, and shall not be understood or construed as, investment advice from Followin.
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