Trump's Stablecoin Chosen For $2 Billion Abu Dhabi Investment In Binance (yahoo.com) 50
Donald Trump's crypto company created a digital dollar called USD1, which is now being used by a big investor in Abu Dhabi to help fund a $2 billion deal with Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange. Reuters reports: Stablecoins are an increasingly lucrative cog in global crypto trading. Their issuers typically profit by earning interest from the Treasuries and other assets that underpin them. The value of USD1 in circulation reached about $2.1 billion on Wednesday, according to CoinMarketCap data, making it one of the fastest-growing stablecoins. The identity of its major holders, however, remains unclear. An anonymous cryptocurrency wallet that holds $2 billion worth of USD1 received the funds between April 16 and 29, according to data from crypto research firm Arkham. Reuters could not ascertain the owner of this wallet.
Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao, who was incarcerated in the United States last year after pleading guilty to violating U.S. laws against money laundering, met Zach Witkoff and two other World Liberty co-founders in Abu Dhabi, according to a photo posted on social media site X on Sunday. "It was great to see our friends," in Abu Dhabi, posted Zhao in response to the photo, tagging Witkoff. Zhao, who in 2023 stepped down from his role at Binance as part of a $4.3 billion settlement with the U.S. over the illicit finance charges, remains a major shareholder of Binance.
Separately, Zach Witkoff announced that USD1 would be integrated into Tron, the blockchain of Hong Kong-based crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun. Sun is the biggest known investor in World Liberty and an adviser to the venture, according to his social media posts, having poured at least $75 million into the project. Sun was fighting a U.S. securities fraud lawsuit at the time of his first investment in World Liberty. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in February paused its case against him, citing public interest.
Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao, who was incarcerated in the United States last year after pleading guilty to violating U.S. laws against money laundering, met Zach Witkoff and two other World Liberty co-founders in Abu Dhabi, according to a photo posted on social media site X on Sunday. "It was great to see our friends," in Abu Dhabi, posted Zhao in response to the photo, tagging Witkoff. Zhao, who in 2023 stepped down from his role at Binance as part of a $4.3 billion settlement with the U.S. over the illicit finance charges, remains a major shareholder of Binance.
Separately, Zach Witkoff announced that USD1 would be integrated into Tron, the blockchain of Hong Kong-based crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun. Sun is the biggest known investor in World Liberty and an adviser to the venture, according to his social media posts, having poured at least $75 million into the project. Sun was fighting a U.S. securities fraud lawsuit at the time of his first investment in World Liberty. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in February paused its case against him, citing public interest.
Bribe (Score:5, Informative)
Blatant bribery.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Bribe (Score:5, Insightful)
Hatch Act on a worldwide scale? Never happens if there's no Justice Dept enforcement.
Oh, wait...
Re: (Score:2)
Hatch Act on a worldwide scale? Never happens if there's no Justice Dept enforcement.
Oh, wait...
Unfortunately, the Hatch Act [wikipedia.org] specifically excludes the president and vice president.
The Hatch Act of 1939 ... prohibits civil-service employees in the executive branch of the federal government, except the president and vice president, from engaging in some forms of political activity.
As for bribery, SCOTUS has made prosecuting a former president much more difficult, Prosecuting a President for Bribery After Trump v. United States [sidebarsblog.com], especially if it's part of an "official act" -- which SCOTUS gets to ultimately decide. There's always Impeachment, though you'd need a majority in the House and 3/4 in the Senate and Republicans control both (for now).
Re: (Score:2)
Did say he did.
But he didn't do this in a vacuum, either.
You move mountains one boulder at a time.
Re: (Score:2)
Conviction requires a vote of two-thirds of Senators present on any article of impeachment.
Re: (Score:2)
Conviction requires a vote of two-thirds of Senators present on any article of impeachment.
Yup, I mistyped. Thanks!
Re: (Score:3)
If it swims and quacks, it's a duck.
I have been confused about stablecoins, and USD1 in particular: what's in it for the creator? And TFS/TFA spells it out:
Stablecoins are an increasingly lucrative cog in global crypto trading. Their issuers typically profit by earning interest from the Treasuries and other assets that underpin them.
So, somebody correct me if I'm wrong here ... but it sounds like USD1 is a kind of "bank account" that pays no interest to depositors, and instead lets the "bank" (i.e., the coin-issuer) earn all the interest by investing in treasury bonds.
Now you may ask: what's in it for the holders of USD1? At least that's obvious: the good graces of POTUS.
Re:Bribe (Score:5, Insightful)
Like all of these schemes, it's about money laundering done in plain sight.
Re: (Score:2)
You probably have much the same agreement with your bank. You give them money and they provide you with a balance in a "chequing account." In the olden days you could make transactions by writing numbers on a piece of paper, but generally today you have either a "debit card" with a chip in it or just put the right numbers and letters into a web form. For people without modern banking systems you can get basically the same service from VISA using their debit system.
Typically banks pay essentially no interest
Re: (Score:3)
One of us is missing something: isn't USD1 the same as TrumpCoin?
Obviously my bank analogy is not ideal. For one thing, USD1 is a currency, so people could agree to transact with it. And you're right, banks usually pay some kind of interest on deposits. I'm not aware that USD1 does though.
This all looks like a way for people to lend Trump money -- cough cough, in exchange for unspecified considerations. Sure sounds like bribery to me.
Re:Bribe (Score:4, Interesting)
It looks like the scheme a financier would set up to make tracing money hard if he never heard of Monero. In a world where all the ledgers are open and you can see every address and amount, you will want to obfuscate via redirection and "parallel ledgers". But since it's basically just lining up txns on the ERC-20 chain with txns on the USD1 chain there's really no obfuscation whatsoever.
Some investigative journalists or infosec bloggers are going to start connecting names to addresses in the $WLFI Etherscan [etherscan.io] and when they do, they are going to become (a) famous and (b) heroes
Re: Bribe (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
AC is 100% correct. Mods are cunts.
Case paused (Score:5, Insightful)
More likely, the case was "paused" because our Grifter-In-Chief had come into office and saw an opportunity for further personal enrichment.
It were chose? (Score:5, Funny)
How it is? Where they was? What them with do to coin?
Re:It were chose? (Score:4, Informative)
I thought I was having a stroke trying to read that headline.
Re: (Score:1)
I see we pronoun people won!
I have a saying as a Disney passholder (Score:4, Insightful)
"Go on every ride enough times and you'll eventually get to experience all the different ways it can break down."
It kind of feels like now this applies to the USA, too.
Just remember (Score:5, Insightful)
If you voted for orange jesus you’re 100% complicit.
This tidbit is giving me some joy. Arkansas wants federal money from storm damage and told them to get fucked. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/0... [cnn.com]
Re: (Score:3)
But, did you know Hunter Biden's laptop had porn on it?
Re: (Score:3)
is there any laptop free of Pr0n ?
that's not physically possible.
Remembered , ok .. but how ? (Score:4, Insightful)
He won't be remembered for being a super smart man .. or a good man , or a honest man .. he will forever be remembered as worst President ever and a complete asshole. What a way to go down in history books ! If ever a biography is written about him ( god forbids .. ) i got a title for it " The Perfect Asshole " Disclaimer : i am not an American , i hate Trump and everything he " stands " ( i use the word loosely ) for.
Re:Remembered , ok .. but how ? (Score:4, Informative)
Every two years, the Siena College Research does a poll of historians, political scientists, think tanks, etc. and come up with a ranking of USA's best president.
Donald Trump was already ranked #3 from the bottom, based on his previous term. Only beat by James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson, two drunks who mismanaged the country into civil war and the aftermath respectively.
Re: (Score:3)
he's above all a narcissistic attention whore. Positive or negative attention doesn't really matter.
Re: (Score:2)
He won't be remembered forever. He'll be remembered until the species gets wiped out, which will now come much sooner.
I mean .. (Score:4, Insightful)
Dosen't anyone object to Trump using the office of President of the USA to peddle his shit ?
If that's no conflict of interest i don't know what could be. He's got to he THE scammer of the century.
Re: (Score:3)
Enforcement is at the discretion of the Attorney General.
Re: I mean .. (Score:3)
The silence is deafening... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's always amusing when these things come to light, that the sycophantic trump-lickers are silent... Speaks volumes about their character (or lack of it).
I want a defense of this (Score:4, Funny)
Why does the President have a crypto company at all? Shouldn't a President divest of such ventures?
Is there a non-political reason to choose USD1 over any of the other stablecoins?
Is there any way we the public can know this is t a conflict of interest besides the administrations assurances?
I'm being serious, give me a good faith defense of this.
Re:I want a defense of this (Score:5, Informative)
The US Supreme Court says it is not a crime when the President does it. It is a political matter and may be addressed by impeachment by the US House of Representatives with the matter to be decided by the US Senate.
The President is above the Law as long as Congress remains loyal. They remain loyal as long as they fear his power.
The more egregious his actions, the more they have cause to fear he will take action against them.
Re: (Score:2)
The President is above the Law as long as Congress remains loyal. They remain loyal as long as they fear his power.
The more egregious his actions, the more they have cause to fear he will take action against them.
For how long can this continue? At some point, Republicans will face the voters. And the voters are not happy with POTUS. The polls show that clearly. And Republicans are getting booed down at their town halls.
I'm hoping that at some point, Republicans will fear their voters more than they fear Trump, and seek to distance themselves from him. Maybe even impeach and remove him.
Re: (Score:3)
I'm hoping that at some point, Republicans will fear their voters more than they fear Trump, and seek to distance themselves from him. Maybe even impeach and remove him.
14 Republican Senators and 8 House members and he's gone but Congress even many Democrats don't seem to care about the fact they have a shitload of power, it's all in there we can say it's co-equal branches but one of those is more equal than the others in practice and the founders pretty much say that it's Congress because they represent the public at large.
They can make the laws, they can remove the President and de-facto replace them, they can remove judges and they control the money. They just all (mos
Re: (Score:2)
You mean as long as the elections remain fair. They won't be. The Republicans learned over the years the people they fear the most are the voters and are working even now to whittle down those "qualified" to vote.
Re: (Score:2)
Why does the President have a crypto company at all? Shouldn't a President divest of such ventures?
Is there a non-political reason to choose USD1 over any of the other stablecoins?
Is there any way we the public can know this is t a conflict of interest besides the administrations assurances?
I'm being serious, give me a good faith defense of this.
You are living in 2024. In 2025, the presidency is nothing but a naked grab for money, and there is nobody who will stop him.
Re: I want a defense of this (Score:2)
Instead of running a Stablecoin grift, (Score:3)
I just wish Trump aspired to be a Stablepresident! Or even just the Stablegenius he imagines himself to be...
Whatever happened to using a blind trust? (Score:2)
When a person becomes US president, isn't he supposed to put his business dealings under a blind trust [wikipedia.org] so as to to avoid any conflict of interests?
Clinton and GWB did. Carter put his peanut farm into one.
Why is this not law?
Re: (Score:1)
Federal law only requires that a president fully disclose their finances and real estate, but nothing requires the blind trust.
There should be a law requiring every President to use a blind trust, with penalties for communicating with the manager, but no Republicans will ever create such a law.
Awfully Interesting, Don't You Think? (Score:2)
Isn't it incredibly interesting how 'jyna and Russia get talked about aaaaaaaall the time... but those billions Jared K got? This bribe? Administration neeeeeever talks about the Saudis, do they?
Awfully Interesting, Don't You Think?
Re: Awfully Interesting, Don't You Think? (Score:2)
See. Much better now.
Ironically (Score:2)
It seems the only decent uses for USD1 is not within the US.
Parallels (Score:2)
Arkham? More like Arkham Asylum.
Legal under Presidential Pardons via the autopen A (Score:1)
But, but.. It's all legal under the Presidential Pardons via the autopen Act promulgated by a certain Sharp as a Tack President who issued some 12,000 pardons or so i hear :)
Just joking