Donald Trump Promotes Sons' Crypto Project on Truth Social

Former president Donald Trump promoted an upcoming family crypto project called ‘The DeFiant Ones" to his 7.57 million followers through his Truth Social account on Thursday.

This comes after his sons teased a "huge" crypto announcement earlier this month, later suggesting the project would lean into DeFi—shorthand for a collection of crypto-based financial tools that allow users to borrow, loan, and trade assets without an intermediary.

“For too long, the average American has been squeezed by the big banks and financial elites.” Trump said in his post, linking to the official Telegram channel, “It's time we take a stand—together. #BeDefiant.”

On Saturday, the Telegram channel, also called “The DeFiant Ones,” told its 25,000 subscribers that it will be sharing “important updates and announcements” in the coming days. But since then it’s only shared one post: “Let’s go!!!!!”

Earlier this month, the New York Post interviewed Eric Trump about the family’s crypto project. "It's digital real estate," he said, though it was unclear if Trump's son was referring to the project itself or to crypto broadly.

Nevertheless, some have interpreted Eric Trump's comments to mean the project could involve some kind of metaverse venture or the tokenization of real-world assets, like real estate.

“It’s equitable. It’s collateral anyone can get access to and do so instantly," Eric Trump told the Post. "I don’t know if people realize what a shake-up that is for the world of banking and finance. I hope we can help change that.”

The vagueness of Eric and Donald Trump Jr.'s initial teases regarding the project backfired earlier this month with a meme coin gone wrong that claimed to be associated with the Trump family.

Within an hour of its launch, the Restore the Republic (RTR) token had a market capitalization of over $100 million as people speculated that it was the promised Trump-backed project. Eric and Don Jr. later denied the family had ties with the project. The token tanked by 90% in just 5 minutes.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.

Editor's note: This article was updated after publication for clarity.