Written by: Bright, Foresight News
During Token2049 Dubai, the Trump family has made another move.
On the evening of April 29, according to The National, Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, revealed that the company will collaborate with London-listed Dar Global to launch a $1 billion development project in Dubai, which will include a Trump-branded hotel, residential units, and a club. The building will be located at the entrance of Sheikh Zayed Road in downtown Dubai, expected to be completed within five years. The project will accept crypto currency payments. This is not the first real estate in the Trump family's Middle Eastern business portfolio, but it is the first building directly linked to crypto by Eric Trump, the second son of Trump.
On April 30, according to The Block, the Trump Media & Technology Group plans to launch a utility Token for Truth Social. The Token will be integrated into the Truth digital wallet, initially used to pay for Truth+ subscription fees, with potential future expansion to other products and services within the Truth Social ecosystem.
The Trump family, having tasted success in the crypto realm through political influence, continues to expand their crypto territory. Eric Trump has clearly become the crypto "vanguard" of the Trump family.
A Smooth Crypto Journey
In 2006, Eric Trump graduated from Georgetown University with a bachelor's degree in finance and management. He joined the Trump Organization the same year as executive vice president of development and acquisitions. In 2012, Forbes named Eric Trump as one of the "30 Under 30" in real estate. When Trump first took office as US president in 2017, he retained ownership of the Trump Organization while transferring control of this vast business empire to his eldest son Donald Jr. and second son Eric. Without any dramatic plot twists, Eric Trump has consistently worked diligently for the Trump family. Now, as executive vice president of the Trump Organization, Eric Trump continues to be the face of the family's crypto bets.
From the 24-year Bitcoin MENA in Abu Dhabi to the 25-year Token2049 in Dubai, in less than a year, Eric Trump has accumulated numerous crypto company titles. Not only is he an ambassador at World Liberty Financial, where he has direct interests, and chief strategy officer at the new Bitcoin mining company American Bitcoin, but he has also been hired as an advisor by numerous well-known crypto companies, including Japan's "Metaplanet".
In fact, becoming an advisor to crypto giants is just a minor matter for Eric Trump, who is backed by the Trump family. Leveraging the "my dad is the president" halo, Eric Trump can easily arrange a chat with Michael Saylor at Mar-a-Lago. What truly draws external attention is Eric Trump's "extremely close" attitude towards crypto.
Eric Trump previously stated in a CNBC interview, "You'll find that cryptocurrencies are faster, more practical, more transparent, and much cheaper." Unlike his father Donald Trump, who sits on the presidential throne, the less restricted Eric Trump is seen as a direct executor of the Trump family's business will. He has repeatedly shilled crypto on social media and in public statements, calling Bitcoin "one of the greatest stores of value" and saying "now is a good time to bet on cryptocurrencies".
"Now, I know almost everyone in this industry to some extent," Eric Trump said. "I fell in love with this industry a few years ago and then dove right in."
A "Two-Way" Pursuit of Interests
However, Eric Trump, from a business family, has inherited the style of a speculator. Behind his "enthusiastic shilling" endorsement, there may be further plans by the Trump family to attract wealth.
In traditional finance, the influence of the US president is still constrained by a relatively complete legal system and financial institutions, and the intricate Wall Street forces also exert significant influence on the White House. In 2022, about two years after the end of Trump's first presidential term, two subsidiaries of the Trump Organization were found guilty of multiple charges by a New York jury, including tax fraud, falsifying business records, and conspiracy. All 17 charges were convicted three weeks after Trump announced his 2024 election campaign. In January 2021, Capital One bank in Florida immediately closed over 300 bank accounts of the Trump Organization following the US Capitol riot.
As a result, before Trump's potential return to the White House, the Trump Organization announced a new ethics plan, stating it would limit Trump's involvement in management decisions and other business aspects during his presidential term. Eric Trump publicly stated that the Trump Organization is "possibly the most restricted company on earth".
In contrast, the crypto currency field, which operates on the edges of regulation and has ample liquidity, has become the Trump family's favorite. The Trump and Melania meme coins alone have added billions of dollars to the family's wealth. The Trump family has abandoned directly profiting from the intricate Wall Street forces and instead entered the crypto realm with the posture of protecting financial innovation and crypto liberators. Eric Trump openly stated that his entry into the crypto currency field is not a financial bet, but a form of resistance. This move began with what he calls an "industry war". He stated that banks are closing accounts, the SEC is cracking down on exchanges, and crypto users are being "stripped of their bank accounts" simply for holding cryptocurrencies.
However, during Trump's second presidential term when he held significant power, the US crypto realm indeed continued to shed its shackles. The SEC and CFTC, which previously conducted strict reviews of crypto exchanges and projects, have taken significant steps in crypto regulation since Trump took office, including abolishing the "DeFi broker rule", withdrawing the lawsuit against XRP, and releasing the Silk Road founder, among other actions.
It can be said that in the US political arena where power and money are intertwined, the Trump family has chosen the easiest path to wealth with a businessman's sharp eye.
Legendary Reverse "Shill King"
However, Eric Trump's three high-profile shills in 2025 formed a bizarre causal chain with significant market declines:
On February 3, Eric posted on X platform, "In my opinion, now is a good time to add $ETH. You can thank me later." At the time, Ethereum's price hovered around $2,900, with market sentiment slightly optimistic due to the Trump family's World Liberty Financial (WLFI) project. However, within 48 hours of the shill, ETH price plummeted to $2,000, a drop of over 30%. On-chain data showed that WLFI transferred crypto assets worth approximately $300 million to Coinbase Prime on the day of the shill, including 66,000 ETH.
On February 25, when Bitcoin's price recovered near $89,000, Eric spoke again, advising investors to "buy BTC on dips and hold long-term". As a result, Bitcoin's price dropped sharply to $78,258 the next day, a single-day decline of 12%. Lookonchain's analysis showed that WLFI sold about 12,000 BTC (approximately $1 billion) before and after the shill, highly coinciding with the market's selling pressure peak.
On March 2, after the Trump administration announced the possibility of exploring crypto assets as national reserves, Eric quickly followed up, calling for "long-term holding of cryptocurrencies, the future is decentralized". Even the tweet about national reserves on Trump's X account was closely related to Eric. However, the next day, after Ethereum surged and then crashed by 17.5%, the decline expanded to 30% within a week, reaching a low of $1,410. On-chain analysts discovered that WLFI had accumulated sales of 86,000 ETH (approximately $235 million) during this period, with a huge price difference between its holding cost price ($3,354) and market price ($1,550), once again exposing its awkward "buy high, sell low" situation. On X, the topic #NeverTrustEric (Never Trust Eric) once exceeded #Bitcoin, and community members began spontaneously compiling an "Eric shill index" as a market risk warning signal.
Momentarily, WLFI became the target of market criticism, with account losses from sales exceeding hundreds of millions of dollars, and was suspected of hedging profits through derivatives off-market. WLFI's business model was also criticized again - WLFI has raised $550 million through governance token issuance, but token holders only have voting rights without dividend rights, and the official website clearly states that "token purchases should not be for profit purposes". "This is essentially a capital game that doesn't need to be responsible to investors," commented Chainalysis, a crypto compliance agency, "Political families exploit regulatory gray areas, transforming social media influence into financial harvesting tools".
However, this does not affect the continued construction of the Trump Tower in Dubai. Eric Trump knows that the crypto world needs the Trump family's political influence, and he will continue to shill.
