Donald Trump Jr. Unveils the Trump Family's DeFi Cryptocurrency Platform to "Take on" the Banks

Bitcoin has surged back this week after a sudden price crash panicked traders (though Coinbase has warned users not to get "fooled").

Bitcoin rebounded on Friday, adding $200 billion to the wider crypto market after former U.S. president Donald Trump proposed a radical plan to pay off $35 trillion of U.S. national debt.

The bitcoin price today climbed to over $61,000 per bitcoin, up from around $59,000 on Thursday. The bitcoin price crash on Wednesday saw bitcoin briefly drop below $56,000 before recovering.

“The bitcoin price crash was a buying opportunity,” one crypto trader told Forbes. “Everyone panicked, but bitcoin has held up remarkably well considering the broader market sell-off.”

Coinbase has warned users not to get “fooled” by bitcoin and crypto price crashes. “Don’t fall for the bitcoin pump and dump,” Coinbase said in a post on X. “The bitcoin price crashes are designed to scare you and get you to sell at a loss.”

Now, after teasing “game-changing” crypto plans all week, Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. has revealed the Trump family is working on a decentralized finance (DeFi) cryptocurrency platform to “take on” the banks.

“I think what we want to do is sort of, take on a lot of the banking world,” Don Jr. said during a live-streamed Q&A on subscription-based platform Locals. “This notion of decentralized finance is obviously very appealing to guys like me who’ve been de-banked or haven’t been able to get insurance or what not.”

Rumors of a Trump cryptocurrency began swirling this week after a series of X posts by Don Jr. and Trump’s son Eric, who teased a “big” crypto announcement.

A new solana-based cryptocurrency called restore the republic, or RTR, exploded in value before crashing back after viral rumors that it could be Trump’s official cryptocurrency were nixed by Trump’s son Eric, who called the rumors “absolutely false” and said the “only official Trump project has not been announced.”

“I love how much the crypto community is embracing Trump,” Don Jr. posted to X. “It’s absolutely incredible, but beware of fake tokens claiming to be part of the Trump project. The only official project will be announced directly by us, and it will be fair for everyone. Don’t be fooled—stay tuned for the real deal.”

Don Jr.’s comments come after his father, former president Donald Trump, embraced cryptocurrencies in a series of posts on Truth Social and X, where he urged his followers to “buy bitcoin” and touted bitcoin as a “digital gold” that will “save the day” amid soaring inflation.

The bitcoin price has surged over the last year, with a crash this week barely denting its huge gains that have been partly powered by Donald Trump’s embrace of crypto.

Decentralized cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin have been touted as an alternative to the centralized financial system, which has been criticized for becoming politicized in recent years—most notably by Canada’s government, which froze the bank accounts of anti-vaccine mandate protesters in 2022.

Last year, the Biden administration was accused of trying to “quietly” ban bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies in a move that’s was described as “Operation Choke Point 2.0”—referring to a 2013 government initiative that sought to cut off undesirable industries from banking services.