This is what a corrupt oligarchy looks like.

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Melanie D'Arrigo @DarrigoMelanie 5h
The President, who owns a crypto company and personally profits from it, is using his official position to pressure Congress to vote for a bill that will personally make him more money and shield him from accountability.

This is what a corrupt oligarchy looks like.




___World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency venture Trump helped launch last year, announced in March that it planned to launch USD1, a stablecoin pegged at a 1-to-1 ratio to the U.S. dollar.

Stablecoins are among the fastest growing segments of the cryptocurrency industry. They are typically backed by a government-issued currency, like the dollar, or to gold, making them better suited to commercial transactions than more volatile digital assets like bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

World Liberty’s announcement came amid a push by Congress, with strong support by the White House, to pass legislation that supporters say would make it easier for stablecoin companies to operate and grow in the U.S.

Zach Witkoff, a World Liberty Financial co-founder and his father, Trump’s special diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff, helped launch World Liberty Financial with Trump and his sons last year. Under the terms outlined on the company’s website, a Trump-owned company has the “right to receive 75% of the net protocol revenues” from World Liberty Financial after expenses.

Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. announced it was partnering with the crypto-trading firm Crypto.com to launch exchange-traded funds for investors to purchase... TMTG is the parent company of Trump’s social media company, Truth Social.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-crypto-world-liberty-truth-social-etf-f11c47a99ea618aa06df4dd47b150800

...Trump's crypto-grifting began before he was even sworn in:

___President-elect Donald Trump launched a new cryptocurrency token that is soaring in value – and potentially boosting his net worth – just before his inauguration. It’s the latest norm-defying promotion by Trump, who has also helped sell branded bibles, gold sneakers and diamond-encrusted watches.

“It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING! Join my very special Trump Community,” Trump said in a social post late Friday promoting the new tokens. They are marketed with a picture of Trump holding a fist up superimposed over the words “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT,” a reference to Trump’s response to an assassination attempt at a political rally in July.

In promoting the meme coin, Trump told supporters to “Have Fun!” The website selling the tokens says they are meant as expressions of support and not an investment opportunity.

Meme coins are a strange and highly volatile corner of the crypto industry that often start as a joke with no real value but can surge in price if enough people are willing to buy them. Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency whose mascot is a super-cute dog that muses things like “much wow,” is perhaps the most well known. Meme coins can be used by scammers looking to make a quick fortune at the expense of unwary investors.

Trump and his family previously helped launch a new venture to trade cryptocurrencies last year. The president-elect has also dabbled in NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, and last year reported earning between $100,000 and $1 million from a series of digital trading cards that portrayed him in cartoon-like images, including as an astronaut, a cowboy and a superhero.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-crypto-meme-coin-token-75bf67ef9e6e54bf455f2f9f03470be3

...not so fast on the legislation:

(Bloomberg) -- House Republican leaders’ plans to pass three industry-backed crypto regulatory measures hit a bump Tuesday as GOP conservatives broke with President Donald Trump on the path forward for the legislation.

A faction of Republican hardliners demanding changes to a Senate-passed stablecoin regulation bill joined with Democrats to defeat a procedural step needed to begin consideration of the crypto bills. The loss disrupted a planned legislative press Trump had promoted as “Crypto Week.”

Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina warned after the hardliners’ revolt that making changes to the stablecoin bill risked rejection in the Senate.

“If our House members send an amended bill back to us that doesn’t fit or isn’t already pre-conferenced with the Democrats who helped us pass that bill out, they can expect that bill will never see the light of day,” Tillis said in an interview on Bloomberg TV.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/house-s-crypto-week-hits-a-bump-after-gop-conservatives-rebel/ar-AA1IFgD4