Trump family went pro-crypto after Biden ‘weaponized banks’ — WSJ

Eric Trump, the son of US President Donald Trump, said the Trump family became pro-crypto after they were “debanked” in the aftermath of the Capitol attack incident in early 2021.

Several banks shut down hundreds of bank accounts related to The Trump Organization without providing a reason, Trump  told  The Wall Street Journal, which led to the group having to rely on regional banks before finding a new, unnamed bank, which they migrated to. 

“At that time, I realized how fragile the financial system was and how easily it could be weaponized against you,” said Trump.

  Eric Trump at Consensus 2025. Source: Wikimedia Commons

The American businessman stated that the reason was purely political in nature, which led him to become pro-crypto, as industry insiders told him that the Biden administration was restricting crypto companies from accessing banking services by applying regulatory pressure.

“This whole system was weaponized against them, no different than it had been weaponized against us for different reasons.”

Notably, The Trump Organization  sued  Capital One in March this year, claiming the bank had closed their accounts due to political reasons, which caused considerable financial harm to the organization.

A month later, Trump said  banks must adopt crypto or face extinction  in ten years.

However, some claim that banks are still continuing to  stick to operation chokepoint policies , with banks closing accounts owned by crypto firms.

Eric Trump also took the chance to support the tokenization of real-world assets.

“Why is it that if I wanted to refinance Trump Tower, I couldn’t tokenize this asset and put it on the street for billions of people around the world to otherwise invest in it?” said Trump.

Trump family’s growing ties to crypto

The Trump family has several ties to the industry, which have become the subject of critics who allege that they have used it to enrich themselves. 

This includes Trump’s official memecoin, TRUMP,  days before getting inaugurated as the 47th US President.

World Liberty Financial was launched on Sept. 16, 2024, and currently offers the USD1 stablecoin. The  website  lists Donald Trump as Co-Founder Emeritus, while his three sons are listed as co-founders.

Meanwhile, Trump’s sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are the founders of American Bitcoin, a subsidiary of Hut 8, that  raised $220 million to purchase Bitcoin  and Bitcoin mining equipment.

According to an Aug. 11 report, Donald Trump has  amassed a fortune of $2.4 billion  from his crypto endeavors. 

Eric Trump  denied allegations that the Trump family profited  from his father being elected as the 47th President. He also floated the idea of him or one of his family members potentially running for the presidency in the 2028 election.