A Fireside Chat with Eric Trump and World Liberty Financial - TOKEN2049 Dubai 2025

It's so amazing to be here today, Zach. I met you um couple times before in Dubai and this has been few months and we have seen so impressive progress with war liberty financial and with like all the project we're doing here. Um congratulations actually and um I just want to say we have been went through the amazing journey and what's the next? Yeah, first of all I just got to thank you for the support Justin. Uh you know Tron is just an incredible technology and uh we're lucky to be partners with you and you know a bunch of other cool projects like yourself but you've been a a leading force uh in our space and uh we thank you for that.

Totally. And we have paid all attention recently to uh World Liberty uh financial. Uh the project really got lots of updates and recently just like hitting $2 billion market cap which is amazing you know um and we just want to know a little bit more about the project and how it going to go uh I I think in the future in your mind. Yeah, I mean listen, World Liberty was really started um when we started to look at the gaps that existed in the traditional financial system. There's really too many to obviously name on on stage today, but I'll I'll highlight a couple.

Uh the first is a lack of transparency. Uh I think a lot of these big banks, uh they're very opaque. No one knows what's going on inside of them. They only work for a few people at the top. Uh and frankly, they're ripping off their customers.

Uh the second is uh accessibility. Um you we have 1.4 billion unbanked citizens in this world. Uh which is a pretty stunning number right 1.4 billion people without the access to uh to financial tools.

And then the third was really uh an inefficiency in in crossber payments. uh myself as well as my co-founders who are here today, uh Chase Herro and Zack Faulkman, you know, we've been traveling the world and meeting with governments, some of whom are paying up to 9% to get their hands on USD. Um and and that's just unacceptable to us. Um a as for the two billion, we are excited to announce today that uh USD1 has been uh selected as the official stable coin to close MGX's $2 billion investment in Binance. Wow.

uh we we thank uh MGX and Binance for their trust in us and uh I think it's only the beginning. Yes, totally. Eric, you has once said like the modern financial system isn't modern at all, right? We have seen like long time like this kind of the cancel culture in the traditional financial system. Can you tell us about um your experience and your angle uh on this topic and how we can better like shape the financial system?

So my entire life was in the modern financial system and it as Zach just said it works really well for you know maybe the top 1% or the top 0ero 1% but it doesn't work for the rest of the world and it's a system that until politics until my family got into politics I didn't realize how fragile it was and the second you start saying something that goes against the system they'll cancel you they'll ostracize you they'll come after you and it's really amazing that's actually what caused me to find cryptocurrency right I'm I'm a hard asset guy I've built buildings all over the world it's what I've done my entire life and they came after us like animals because of of politics. Coincidentally, they were actually going after the crypto community. The exact same people that were coming after us were going after the crypto community. And so, you know, sometimes they say the, you know, enemy of your enemy is is your friend. And that's exactly what happened.

All of a sudden, you know, two people, you know, came together. That's, you know, kind of the real estate world. People who believed in in great assets. And obviously the crypto community also another great group of people who believed in hard assets. And you know these assets have become the greatest complement to to one another, right?

You know, real estate's illquid. It's it's hard to move. It's really only accessible, you know, at least on a large scale to to to kind of very few. Um it's very static in terms of location. Then all of a sudden you go to, you know, cryptocurrencies which is immediately liquid, easy to move, accessible to anyone, and you actually realize that cryptocurrencies become the greatest hedge in the world to kind of hard assets.

But what it made me also realize is how absolutely antiquated and broken the modern financial system is. I mean, why is it that it takes, you know, Chase Manhattan, why why is it that it takes them 90 days to issue somebody a loan? Somebody wants to go get financing. They want to go buy a home. And this is true of banks all over the world.

Why is it that it takes 90 or 120 days to go get a loan from a financial institution that you've spent 25 years banking with, right? They're doing paper forms, know your customers, right? They've got the most beautiful logo on these buildings all around the world that are looking over the streets, right? And what are they doing? They're pushing paper forms out there.

Things that could be done on blockchain instantaneously. Things that could be done cheaper, faster, you know, more, you know, efficiently, you know, using modern finance. Every single week I'm chasing a wire transfer. The Swift system is broken and it's going to be replaced by cryptocurrency. But why is it a a Friday afternoon at 4:00 in the US somewhere, I'm waiting for a swift wire transfer to come in when, you know, right now anybody could move, you know, Bitcoin or or USD1 or any other, you know, kind of form of currency across the world in in a matter of seconds.

Again, cheaper, faster, and more transparently. Guys, our system is broken. Modern finance is absolutely broken. And and so when the banks came after our family, I'll never forget it. We became the most canceled people in the world all because, you know, we're associated with politics in the United States.

And and honestly, I really do believe that cryptocurrency and certainly our venture into cryptocurrency is going to make the big banks regret that. And I believe that the crypto world is going to take over those big banks. I I think it's going to leave them in the dust. Uh and I think it's going to change our modern financial system forever. You know, Justin, they say, uh, thank you.

We we like to say at World Liberty Financial, pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered. Yes. Yes. Uh, World Liberty Financial is definitely, I think, one of the uh great examples, right? We can use World Liberty Financial to shape the world and really change the financial system.

And we going to leave them in the dust, right? Like if they join us uh soon sooner or later, right? That's right. They can either listen, I think they have two choices, right? They can either turn their big container ships around, which, you know, might take them some time, uh, or they can get left behind in the dust like you're talking about.

Um, I think time will tell, you know, which choice they make, but hopefully they're on the right side of history. Definitely. Yeah. I I think it's actually almost hard for them to turn their containership around because their entire business model, right? They're they're so antiquated and they're so so big to Zach's point, but their entire business model is to run arbitrage on fees that become redundant in kind of a crypto environment.

I mean, you know, try and send money from from New York City to Abu Dhabi, right? If if if you're a US citizen, you know, what bank branch do you find in Abu Dhabi that you can send the money? And then you know what's the currency conversion rate between the US dollar you know and here and do you trust the person on the other side and and and and can you communicate with that person efficiently and how slow is the swift transfer system going to be you know and and and how many fees are going to be taken by by the issuing bank and by the receiving bank and by the currency conversion and whoever processes the technology and what crypto does is it actually makes that whole process kind of redundant right and and that's why I kind of really believe that If the banks don't embrace this, if they don't buy into it, if they don't embrace crypto right now, they're just going to be extinct because you're actually eliminating their function. It's almost like old school film in a camera. I mean, in the digital age, you just no longer need it.

So, it stops being used. And I think that's what's going to happen to a lot of the big financial institutions. They're literally just going to stop being used because the system that they're implementing is slower, more costly, and and and obviously not innovative. Frankly, it hasn't changed since what, the 1970s. Yes.

You know, small updates, but I mean, crypto in terms of the technology is is advancing a hundred times as fast as these big banks. They can't keep up with the people in this room. And so, um, there's nothing that would actually bring me more joy to see some of those banks that came after us so viciously and came after so many other people, many of the people in this room so viciously, um, you know, kind of fall to the very people that they came after. Exactly. And also one of the topic I think we in the crypto world we really have is transparency right like whatever it happens is it happens on the blockchain like instantly uh we I recently see um the confidence like rave for the institution come to really low like in in United States you see like bank like just go bankrupt like overnight like nobody knows what's going on in the bank in the Hong Kong you know you see the trust like just move like $5 million around and the customer don't know even what happened, you know.

Um, but on blockchain, it will never have this kind of the thing happen again because all the things like everything will be transparent on the blockchain. Yeah, and I think that's a great point, Justin. Um, not only do we want to create a product in our stable coin USD1 that can be sent across borders in a in a very seamless way, uh, but transparency and and frankly consumer safety is paramount, right? Um, I don't think that our industry can afford many more of these, you know, scams that you're referring to. Uh, so I think you'll see that USD1 will become the most transparent, uh, the most regulated stable coin in the world.

Uh I think that you know you guys will be uh quite pleased with uh our monthly attestation reports uh our monthly audits uh etc. And uh I think that's actually something that that should be required right um exactly and and frankly it's a lot it's a lot it's a much better system right our our our digital dollar is backed one to one by by short-term treasuries and cash equivalents. Uh so you tell me where you'd rather keep your money. uh something that's backed one to one by uh you know treasuries and short-term cash equivalents or something that's fractionally backed by you know you you don't even know what exactly and Eric um everybody has to be very family uh familiar with your family and your business um but they don't know actually um you are very committed to financial freedom so uh can you talk a little bit about this topic and like how we can use like world liberty financial to uh really realize this value. You know in 2019 in 2020 2021 I started getting letters from some of the biggest banks in the world.

These were banks that you know we had done business with as a family for you know in some cases 20 30 40 years you know your accounts have been cancelled right and this is in the United States of America. this is the you know the superpower of the world and you know the most advanced economy of the world and I'm saying they're saying you know this isn't even this isn't even possible right it was it was kind of that woke cancel culture movement that spread across you know so much of the world other than frankly the Middle East they've done a great job keeping that nonsense out of here um I really applaud you before the Middle East and really the UAE has done an unbelievable job keeping that out of there but you know you realize how susceptible people are really to kind of, you know, one person sitting in these golden towers overlooking these big cities. You know, if they don't like you, they can destroy your life, they can destroy your business, they can destroy your livelihood. They certainly tried to do that with the Trump organization. The good the good news about us is we had enough zeros behind kind of on our balance sheet, you know, and we had a loud enough voice that they couldn't kind of get away with it.

But then you start going around to industrial countries all over the world, developing countries all over the world, and you realize that so many people on this earth have zero financial freedom, right? they they don't have the balance sheet. They don't have the zeros. They don't have any leverage whatsoever. You know, if I'm trying to get a loan for a building, I can go out and I can call the the CEO of one of these banks and say, "Listen, you're going to you're going to drop the interest rate by 150, you know, basis points.

We're a big account. We'll give you deposits. We'll do this, right? We can negotiate great terms. You know, try and try and be an individual in Zimbabwe where you have a,000% inflation, you know, every single year.

Try and negotiate terms with a lender, right? they can't participate in the modern financial system. It's just it's not even accessible to them. Then take so many of those countries that don't have technology, that don't have the benefit of these big beautiful screens and laptops and everything else. Their only connectivity to the world really becomes really to the digital world becomes the one item that virtually everybody has gotten in their pocket now, whether they buy it outright or they finance it through these elaborate programs, but that's ultimately your cell phone.

And so you can combine your your phone technology that you have in your pocket with with giving people an even playing field around the world to be able to to buy to be able to invest to be able to put their money into USD1 backed by onetoone US treasuries, you know, versus trying to put their money into some currency in in in Zimbabwe or some currency in, you know, some nation that's either plagued by wars or, you know, or famine or or corruption. or you know, you name it, right? That gives people financial freedom the likes of what they've never seen before. I I don't think you've had this kind of competitive advantage for everybody in the world really. Maybe since the advent of of the internet, which for the first time kind of made knowledge as attainable to to somebody who's poor as to somebody who's uber wealthy, right?

Before they had to rely on on libraries going into that, which people didn't otherwise have. All of a sudden, the internet kind of brought an even playing field to to the entire globe. What crypto really does is bring an even playing field to the globe. If you don't have access to Jamie Diamond, if you don't have access to the biggest financial institutions, you know, congratulations. You have your phone and you can invest in Justin.

And that might be investing in Justin for $10 or $100 or $1,000 or a million dollar or a hundred million. You can buy USD1. And so you're no longer at the mercy of of a government that you might not trust or a currency you might not trust. And that's a beautiful thing for humanity. And that's why we're so incredibly proud of of USD1 and what we're doing.

And let me just say one other thing. You know, the the the US currency, like it or not, because there's so many international people in this room, it is really revered. It's what people want all around the world. You go to South America, guess what they want? Guess what they trade in?

They trade in the US dollar. If you go to so many places in Asia, guess what they want? They want the US dollar. In fact, you have so many countries around the world that will do anything possible to make sure that people can't abandon their own count's currencies because they know that kind of the plight will be to the US dollar because it's it's safer, it's more stable, it's more accessible, it's more it's more tradable. And so to take that format and digitize it and really bring it around the world and make it incredibly safe, I mean the the explosive growth that we're seeing at WLF is exactly that model.

But again, it gives so many people financial freedom that they could have never comprehended before. Um and that's why this project has the legs. That's why everybody's talking about world liberty. That's why everybody's talking about USD1. Yes, totally.

I think it's really echoes like our value when we when I first create Tron you know create uh the crypto ecosystem uh we are here for the financial freedom it's not here for the money right because for most of the big banks they decided to not on board those customer because they feel like there is no profit to be made on those customer they are not like thinking we need to bring like 7 billion people on earth into the crypto eosystem system into the financial freedom and uh for myself you know um I'm really honored uh we can collaborate with USD1 launching this uh stable coin to further make this available to 7 billion people on earth. Yeah and I I guess you just let it slip but it's a it's a good time for another announcement that we will be natively integrating USD1 on Tron. Uh we're very excited about that. we should be minting, you know, in the hundreds of millions of dollars to start and I expect it to reach many billions of market cap very shortly. Um, but we're we're just incredibly uh grateful for your support.

You know, I I touched on it earlier, but uh it's 1.4 billion unbanked uh citizens globally. Uh and that's just what they report on, right? I'm sure there's many others uh in that category that are what we call underbanked. Um, and you know, our goal at World Liberty is is really to democratize, you know, access to the financial system and really bridge uh DeFi with with traditional finance.

You know, I think we we'll live we'll wake up in a world in in four or five years uh where the two things will will kind of just merge, right? I think that you'll see DeFi and traditional finance just sort of come together in a way that they they can't ever really be uh untwined again. Exactly. And also um um for this question for Zach um I think United States uh under the new administration has doing everything they can to make crypto be very competitive and a great environment for the crypto industry. Uh what do you think they should do more and uh with of course with the help of World Liberty Financial to really shape the future for United States here?

Yeah. Uh, I mean, Eric touched on it earlier. You know, I think we really need to take a a page out of His Highnesses and and the and the Emirates, uh, uh, book. Uh, they are just, uh, an amazing example of how you can lead with innovation while also maintaining your family values, your cultural values. It's really just, I mean, everyone here knows, you guys have been here all week.

This is just one incredible country. uh one of the most innovative if not the most innovative country on on planet earth today. Um so I think it starts with with really taking a page out of out of the book of those who have done it very successfully which of course starts with United Arab Emirates. Um and listen I think it's you know a matter of you know you got to move very fast. Um you got to make quick decisions which they're able to do here.

uh but you also have to protect the consumer in in a reasonable way that doesn't stifle innovation and so I think if we can do those things you know the sky is the limit um yeah I think that's really it definitely um this question is for Eric uh you have been in the Dubai for uh so many times uh and I think you have seen these cities grow from like zero to what we have today and for myself actually when I first attend token um 2049 um it's not like this scale right but today we have seen like so many people come here it's come become like one of the center of the crypto hub and uh what's your op opinion on that yeah so I've been very fortunate to be coming to to Dubai and in Abu Dhabi and the the UAE for 20 years I think my first trip over here was in 2006 so I saw it before the city became this always looking at real estate I started working here in in 2011 2012 built an unbelievable golf course which has become one of the most popular. We just announced Trump International Hotel right on Shakes uh two nights ago. It's going to be one of the most beautiful buildings in in in the city. And I always say that the rest of the world has to be careful of the UAE for one reason. They always arrive at the word yes which is a beautiful thing and they do it quickly.

Right? I mean I can't tell you guys I work all over the world. You know, Europe has become a lost cause. It really has. And that that hurts my feelings to say, but they are impossible to deal with.

And they are they it is impossible to get them to the word. Yes. If I'm building a great golf course [Applause] somewhere, we love Ireland. I'm building a great golf course in Ireland. I want to move one green.

And there was a microscopic snail. I kid you not. They put us through hell for seven years, you know, hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars. I want to move one green over. At the end of the day, Ireland said yes.

And you know who came in and said no? Brussels. Because guys, the bureaucracy kills countries. And there is no bureaucracy here. If they love an idea, if it's a good idea, if it's a smart idea, they say yes.

We got permits for a building that's 1150 ft tall with the highest swimming pool anywhere in the world. that's going to be in the Guinness Book of World Records. We got permits for that building in one month because they love the concept. They love the idea and they were willing to say yes. And listen, America is is a thousand times better than than Europe, but I just to the entire Western world.

And by by the way, my mom's European. It like hurts my feelings to say that, right? Like I don't I don't want a dog on a but literally they're impossible. And you know one of the things over here the country also looks forward right it's you know so often times I'll travel around the world and you know 1159 BC you know this happened on this very site it's like you know you come over to the UAE you come over to Abu Dhabi and the leaders are saying you know this is what I want to be in 30 years not what we were 2 years ago and I think that's really beautiful and and I think it fits in so well with this crypto conversation because all of us all of us are looking ahead guys the rest of the world they don't they don't know what's coming. They still don't get it.

I I have a friend who runs a big bank in in Connecticut and like a year ago, he looks at me. He goes, "Cryptocurrency. That's that's funny money. It's all funny money." You know, Bitcoin's funny money.

Stable coins is funny money. And then a couple weeks ago, he came up to me. It was one of my best friends, Jeff. He came up to me. He goes, "Hey, you know, how do I invest in cryptocurrency?

I really want to get involved in in World Liberty Financial. I really want to get involved in Bitcoin. I really want to get involved in in the crypto world." And you know he was telling me a year ago to invest in in in treasuries and fixed income. And you know and by the way these are brilliant people.

These are people that are we are in the dialup phase of the of the crypto revolution right now guys. And and the people who are going to make it big are the people who are seeing it today not the people who see it in 5 years when you know half the explosive growth has happened right Abu Dhabi Dubai they're seeing it today. They're seeing what the future is. the United States because we finally have a good leader which we didn't have over the last four years. But the United States is seeing that the financial world has to progress.

I mean guys, it's a joke. Why Why do banks run 9 to5 Monday through Friday with an hour and a half lunch break, right? I I mean it doesn't it doesn't make sense. Why why is every single big banking building filled with thousands of people who are literally taking out trash, you know, filling, you know, filling refrigerators with bottles of water? Like, why are those people necessary, you know, in a modern world which can work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and do so faster and cheaper for the end consumer, right?

And and and that's what we're realizing in the United States. That's what's being pushed in the United States. That's what's being pushed in in in the UAE by people who can see that the old financial system is broken and it has to be fixed. You know, go try and fix this problem in France. God God bless.

Everybody loves it, right? But go try and fix this this in societies which always have the aversion to the word, you know, no. They they don't want to get to the yes. And if they get to the yes, it takes way too long. And I'm telling you, the countries that that can move quickly, the the countries that are nimble, and the countries that have some foresight are going to win this race.

And the Gulf is is is one of those areas in the world, specifically right here. Uh and America is the other part of the world. And and and together, I really believe we're going to win the crypto revolution. [Applause] Definitely. Even for myself, I uh visit Dubai like so many times.

I with your story. Uh I decided to move here more. Um not rather just being in the conference but like live there like feel the culture, feel the people. I have my um Dubai uh um um ID card like uh uh last year. But actually, you know, it's way faster to get it from DMV in US like back those days.

Um and also uh I'm totally uh on board. I want to visit United States in May and to really seen um the huge difference had happened like like a 100 days like after the new administration take over and is really changed us um in a good way. No doubt about it. Um you like Eric was saying uh the president is just a tremendous leader. Um and when you have good leadership you know good things happen.

And uh that's why this country is what it is. That's why the UAE is one of the most successful countries on the planet right now. They have tremendous tremendous leadership here. Um and it and they have some of the happiest citizens in the world. You walk the streets here and you talk to anyone who lives here, they don't want to leave.

You talk to people who have moved here from other places and they tell me, you know, I can't get my wife to leave and go on vacation. She loves it here so much. And the reason is is really leadership, right? And and they're they're leading the way on crypto. They're leading the way on AI.

They're leading the way on robotics. Um and you know, I think USD1 is going to play a very critical part of this new digital world that we're moving into. Definitely. Um so to wrap this up like um this for uh Zach first and then Eric. Uh what do you uh have other uh ideas want to share with the audience?

um and for cryptocurrency and for the financial freedom. Yeah, I mean listen, I think we we have a lot on the way um at World Liberty, so stay tuned. Uh we're working on, you know, a lot of different DeFi integrations right now. Uh we we do aim to be the uh you know, the preferred uh stable coin in the DeFi and the CFI ecosystem. Um, but we're also working really hard, myself, my co-founders, uh, Zach and Chase that I that I mentioned before, uh, you know, Eric and his brother, uh, we're working really hard on, you know, getting integrations into traditional retail point of sales systems.

I don't think our mission is really going to be complete um until you can walk into uh you know the Four Seasons in Abu Dhabi and swipe your debit card using USD1 or go to your local deli in in New York to to buy a an egg sandwich using uh your debit card that has USD1 on it. So that's really uh that's really our goal. I don't think we're too far away. And uh again, thanks thanks for all the support Justin. You've been instrumental in our success.

So, thank you. Great honor. Great honor. So, Zach almost got punched there because you're not going to be walking into the Four Seasons using USD1. You're going to be walking into Trump International Hotel and Tower.

I I said Abu Dhabi, not Dubai. I can't believe that. I said Abu Dhabi. Not Dubai. What the hell?

Come on. By the way, it's Dubai Trump Tower. You know, we've got the greatest team in the world. Um, you know, this guy has become one of our our closest friends. Um, and and Zach and Chase, come up here, guys.

and Scott, you guys, you guys have to come up here. Scott, get up here. These guys work so hard every single day. Um, and and they are some of the smartest people in the business. And uh, guys, we are so passionate about this mission.

I I can't even tell you. You can probably hear it in my heart and soul. A lot of it came out of life experiences, right, where this kind of fixes a problem. A lot of it comes out of practicality. A lot of it comes out of just seeing a system that's broken that can be done so much better.

And we're going to transform the financial world. You know, we have a team. this team and a lot of other people who work 24/7 uh to to really modernize this world and and the entire industry has to just embrace two things. I mean the industry has to self police itself because this industry cannot afford to have scumbags and scam projects and it it just can't happen you know and this industry has to do one other thing. It has to embrace hospitality right kind of what I do on the real estate side every single day which is it has to make the user experience friendly.

The first time that these guys brought me through through DeFi, it was an absolute disaster, right? You're trying to like, you know, link, you know, you're trying to link your your wallets to to A and MetaMask and this and that and you're trying to fund it with gas fees and all this nonsense, right? And you're trying to loop and swap and it's not it's not intuitive at all, right? And it wasn't intuitive to a lot of people. And so I I think so much of the growth, you know, of of what our our kind of culture is, what our industry is going to be is how much hospitality, how userfriendly we can make this world.

And the faster we get to that point, the ma faster we have mass adoption and the faster we beat um the big banking industries who um hate all of us um hated all of us and probably continue to hate all of us. So uh on behalf of myself, the family, the entire team, um thank you to Dubai, thank you to Abu Dhabi, thank you to UAE, thank you to all of you, uh and thank you for believing in World Liberty Financial. We we love you all. Thank you guys. Love you guys.

Thank you so much guys. Thank you.