According to the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade on January 30, in 2023, the national trade promotion system issued a total of 9,273 outbound ATA carnets, a year-on-year increase of 191.97%.
Reporters learned from the State Administration of Financial Supervision today (13th) that recently, some online malls have induced consumers to apply for loans in the name of shopping installments, recycling, etc., causing many consumer disputes. In order to effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, the Financial Consumer Rights Complaints and Mediation Center of the State Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau, the China Consumers Association, and the China Internet Finance Association jointly issued a risk warning to remind consumers to be wary of induced payment and high financing cost traps, and to enhance their identification capabilities and risk prevention awareness.
The risk warning also analyzes several typical traps through specific cases.
Case 1
Mr. Lu was attracted by the "high limit", "low interest" and "quick loan" of an installment mall. Without any real shopping needs, he placed an order for a certain brand of mobile phone at the mall for 7,599 yuan and applied for the consumer installment business. The mall guides that there is no need to receive the goods, and they can be cashed out by directly recycling them. A mobile phone of the same model and specifications sells for 5,810 yuan on mainstream e-commerce platforms. After 12 installments, the total loan principal and interest is as high as 8,529 yuan, while the recycling price is only 5,130 yuan. Mr. Lu later suffered from frequent debt collection by the platform due to his inability to repay. While his normal life was seriously affected, his personal credit also faced overdue stains.
Enlightenment: Under this type of business model, consumers not only need to pay installment interest fees, but also bear the loss of recovery price difference. Consumers should make income and expenditure plans based on their own financial conditions, not be fooled by inductive propaganda, and refuse to participate in illegal activities such as "cash-out on shopping." When handling consumer installment business, you must fully understand and carefully calculate the relevant costs to avoid incurring high liabilities and unnecessary repayment pressure. If there is a real need, they should choose financial products and services from formal channels that match their consumption characteristics, repayment ability, etc. based on their actual situation and risk tolerance, and repay them in a timely manner as agreed to avoid overdue effects on personal credit.
Case 2
When Mr. Ma applied for installment business through a shopping mall platform, he discovered that he had to upgrade to a specific membership level to be eligible to apply. He did not carefully read the relevant service agreement and prompts, did not notice the clause "successful installment is not guaranteed", and opened the paid membership service with one click. In the end, Mr. Ma failed to borrow money or buy goods, but the monthly membership fee of nearly 300 yuan was still "deducted correctly." Although he communicated many times to request a refund, the mall refused to refund for reasons such as "I have checked to agree to the agreement," and "there will be no refund after activation."
Enlightenment: Be wary of inducing bundled charges. When handling payment services online, consumers should pay attention to guard against risks such as unknown deductions, forced bundling, and black-box deductions. Carefully read the service agreement and pop-up prompts, and fully understand key terms such as service scope, termination conditions, refund rules, and deduction cycles. Carefully click on shortcut buttons such as "One-click Agree" and "Express Processing" to avoid unknowingly checking additional services, activating paid items, or authorizing too many permissions.
Case three:
When Ms. Li inquired about installment business from a consumer platform, she directly provided her name, mobile phone number, ID card and other personal information without reaching a loan intention. Since then, Ms. Li has frequently received harassing calls from third-party marketing, and even received suspected fraud messages, which is unbearable.
Implications: Improve awareness of personal information protection. Regarding the practice of consumer platforms to collect personal data for matching with partner organizations, consumers should strengthen their awareness of information security and be cautious in providing personal information or authorizing the scope of information collection and use to avoid leakage or illegal use of personal information.
The risk warning reminds consumers that if they find that their legitimate rights and interests have been infringed upon during the process of applying for installment for shopping and consumption, they should pay attention to preserving relevant evidence such as bills, transaction vouchers, communication records, and reasonably safeguard their rights through legal and formal channels. Consumers can negotiate with operators in accordance with laws and regulations such as the Consumer Rights Protection Law of the People's Republic of China. If the negotiation fails, they can report it to the National Consumers Association Smart 315 platform or the China Internet Finance Association; if they find suspected violations of laws and regulations, they can complain and report to regulatory authorities and public security organs.
21st Century Business Herald reporter Hu Tianjiao comprehensively reported that after about US$610 million in assets were hacked at one time, the cross-chain DeFi (decentralized finance) platform Poly Network has received intermittently repayments from hackers.
On the morning of August 12, local time, Poly Network stated on social media that as of 8:18:29 on the same day, hackers had returned approximately US$342 million in assets, of which the amounts returned to Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon were US$04.6 million, US$252 million, and US$85,000, respectively.
"Theft is for fun." After returning some assets, the hacker explained in the blockchain by asking questions. "Poly Network is a good system, which is very challenging for hackers. I personally am not very interested in money."
But even if the amount returned reaches approximately US$342 million, compared with the approximately US$610 million that was previously hacked, there are still approximately US$268 million in Ethereum assets that have yet to be returned by hackers.
Poly Network became known on Tuesday for suffering what may become the largest DeFi hacker theft in history. On August 10, local time, Poly Network stated that it had been attacked by hackers, causing asset losses worth approximately US$610 million. US$250 million, US$270 million, and US$85 million were stolen from the three chains of Ethereum, BSC, and Polygon respectively. “Tens of thousands of people have been affected by hackers. Currently, approximately $33 million in the stolen stablecoin Tether has been frozen by the issuer of Tether, making it impossible for hackers to obtain it.”
"Dear hacker, we hope to contact you as soon as possible and ask you to return the stolen assets," Poly Network wrote in a subsequent letter. "What you have done may cause the largest Defi theft in history. This may be classified as a crime in any jurisdiction and you will be prosecuted."
Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, said at the same time, "We are aware of the vulnerability that occurred today. Although no one controls BSC (or ETH), we are coordinating with all security partners to proactively provide help, and we will do our best." Security researcher SlowMist said that this is likely to be a long-term planned, organized, and prepared attack. The attacker's email, IP address and device fingerprint have been identified.
About an hour after the hack was announced, Tether Chief Technology Officer Paolo Ardoino blacklisted the hacker's address before the hacker attempted to transfer assets, including USDT, to liquidity pool Curve Finance via an Ethereum address, thereby freezing approximately $33 million in Tether funds. But even so, nearly $100 million was transferred from Binance Smart Chain addresses to the liquidity pool Ellipsis Finance.
“Hackers have begun using decentralized exchanges to convert stolen assets into other assets, including stablecoins,” Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson explained. “Tokens such as stablecoins can theoretically be confiscated by their issuers, which may enable them to be returned to their rightful owners. However, this is not possible with stolen Ethereum assets.”
With DeFi applications attracting billions of dollars in investment funds, the former has naturally become a popular target for hackers. Data from encryption security company CipherTrace shows that so far this year, Defi-related hacking attacks account for more than 60% of total encryption attacks, up from 20% the previous year. As of the first five months of 2021, the amount stolen from Defi-related hacking attacks was US$156 million, which has exceeded the US$129 million value for the whole of 2020.
However, the overall situation for cryptocurrencies is improving. CipherTrace data shows that criminal losses across the cryptocurrency market dropped sharply to $681 million at the end of July, down from $1.9 billion in 2020 and $4.5 billion in 2019. The overall downward trend may reflect significant improvements in the cryptocurrency industry’s security infrastructure.
The rise in Defi illegal activities comes as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) speeds up its regulation of crypto assets and seeks legislative support from the Senate. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said in a recent response to a question from Senator Elizabeth Warren that regulators need more power to protect investors. “Lawmakers should give regulators clear authority to set rules for crypto asset exchanges, including DeFi trading venues. The SEC needs more power to prevent transactions, products, and platforms from falling through the regulatory cracks.”
In June 2021, after falsely reporting a "hacking" incident to customers, Ameer Cajee and Raees Cajee, the founders of the South African exchange Africrypt, disappeared with more than $3.6 billion worth of Bitcoin, becoming one of the largest Bitcoin thefts in history.
According to the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade on January 30, in 2023, the national trade promotion system issued a total of 9,273 outbound ATA carnets, a year-on-year increase of 191.97%.
China's national trade promotion system issued 9,273 Admission Temporaire/Temporary Admission (ATA) Carnets in 2023, surging by 191.97 percent year on year, said the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) on January 30.
On January 30, 2024, an ocean-going ro-ro ship loaded passenger vehicles for export overseas in the Jiangyin Port Area of Fuzhou Port (drone photo). Image source: Xinhua News Agency
【Knowledge Points】
The ATA carnet is an internationally accepted customs clearance document. It was specially created by the World Customs Organization for temporary entry and exit of goods. It is also called a "cargo clearance passport".
According to reports, in 2023, the national trade promotion system issued a total of 6.2102 million certificates of origin, ATA carnets, commercial certificates and other certificates, a year-on-year increase of 16.05%. Among them, the total amount of non-preferential certificate of origin visas issued by the national trade promotion system was US$382.209 billion, a year-on-year increase of 7.13%; the number of visas totaled 3.9143 million, a year-on-year increase of 13.44%.
The total value of preferential certificate of origin visas issued by the national trade promotion system was US$65.152 billion, a year-on-year increase of 7.07%; the number of visas totaled 1.6769 million, a year-on-year increase of 21.54%. The steady growth in the number of certificates of origin issued by the national trade promotion system, especially preferential certificates of origin, shows that as my country increases the implementation and promotion of free trade agreements and other stabilizing foreign trade policy effects, the ability and level of my country's foreign trade enterprises to enjoy export preferential treatment are also constantly improving.
【Important speech】
We must unswervingly promote Chinese-style modernization, fully, accurately and comprehensively implement the new development concept, accelerate the construction of a new development pattern, promote high-quality development, and coordinate development and security. We must persist in seeking progress while maintaining stability, promoting stability through advancement, establishing first and then breaking, consolidate and enhance the positive trend of economic recovery, and achieve long-term economic stability.
We will steadfastly advance Chinese modernization, fully and faithfully apply the new development philosophy on all fronts, speed up building the new development paradigm, promote high-quality development, and both pursue development and safeguard security. We will continue to act on the principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, promoting stability through progress, and establishing the new before abolishing the old. We will consolidate and strengthen the momentum of economic recovery, and work to achieve steady and long-term economic development.
——Xi Jinping’s 2024 New Year’s message delivered on December 31, 2023
We have implemented a more proactive opening-up strategy, built a global network of high-standard free trade zones, accelerated the construction of pilot free trade zones and the Hainan Free Trade Port, and jointly built the Belt and Road Initiative into a popular international public good and international cooperation platform. my country has become a major trading partner of more than 140 countries and regions, ranking first in the world in terms of total trade in goods, leading the world in attracting foreign capital and outbound investment, forming a larger-scale, wider-field, and deeper opening-up pattern.
We have pursued a more proactive strategy of opening up. We have worked to build a globally-oriented network of high-standard free trade areas and accelerated the development of pilot free trade zones and the Hainan Free Trade Port. As a collaborative endeavor, the Belt and Road Initiative has been welcomed by the international community both as a public good and a cooperation platform. China has become a major trading partner for more than 140 countries and regions, it leads the world in total volume of trade in goods, and it is a major destination for global investment and a leading country in outbound investment. Through these efforts, we have advanced a broader agenda of opening up across more areas and in greater depth.
——Xi Jinping’s report at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China on October 16, 2022
【Related vocabulary】
Foreign trade enterprises
foreign trade enterprises
certificate of origin
Certificates of Origin
China Daily English Dianjin Studio (This article was first published on the "Study Powerful Country" learning platform)
recently
Visually impaired blogger Xiao Jiang
Posted a video of flying alone
Recorded from a first-person perspective
She flew from Wuxi to Guangzhou
The whole process of traveling by air
Attracting widespread attention from netizens
Xiao Jiang is a post-00 generation and lives in Yixing, Jiangsu Province. In 2023, she became blind due to complications caused by systemic vasculitis.
"I used to travel mainly short distances. I have never taken a plane or been to Guangzhou. This time I just want to experience it." Xiao Jiang said that this was her first time flying after losing her sight for three years, and she wanted to see if she could go further by traveling alone.
So, she set out from Wuxi Shuofang Airport and traveled nearly 1,500 kilometers to Guangzhou, using a hanging camera to record the experience from a first-person perspective.
"I was quite nervous before flying. My family also helped me check some information to see if blind people can travel by plane alone." Xiaojiang made an appointment in advance for the airline's key passenger services, and the staff provided attentive assistance throughout the process. She felt that this attempt was warm and smooth. She hopes that the personal experience recorded in the video will encourage more visually impaired friends to bravely step out of the house.
Xiao Jiang said that from the moment she entered the airport terminal, there was a dedicated person to guide and hand over her. From check-in, security check, waiting to boarding, different staff took the initiative to help every step of the way.
In the 15-minute video, Xiao Jiang said thank you no less than 15 times.
"My seat is in the second-to-last row by the window, and a staff member took me to board the plane in advance." The restroom was very close to Xiao Jiang's seat, and the flight attendant's seat was diagonally behind her. "The flight attendants kept saying that if you need anything, you can contact them at any time, which made me feel very warm."
After landing in Guangzhou, ground staff picked her up and chatted with her all the way, making the long journey much easier.
It was the first time he tried a new means of transportation. Xiao Jiang said that he also had a lot of courage and determination. In fact, not only was the flight there smooth, but the flight back was equally "silky".
Her trip to Guangzhou lasted only three days, but she gained far more than scenery and delicious food—it gained trust, courage, and a new way of understanding the world. "This trip was overall quite good. I had many different experiences and met many people who helped me."
Xiao Jiang hopes that people who have seen this experience, especially the visually impaired, will not be afraid to go out: "We must be braver. Only by taking the step out of the house can we truly integrate into society."
In the future, she also wants to visit more cities and leave her mark. "Every city has its own culture and characteristics. Although I can't see it, I can still feel the warmth and human touch of the city. As long as you are willing to go out, the world will be warmer than you imagine." Xiao Jiang said.
① Douyin issued a financial industry convention, proposing systematic regulations on the creation of financial content in terms of account qualifications, content management, marketing behavior, violation handling, etc.;
② In the specific rules, account qualifications are prefixed as the core threshold.
"Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" reported on December 17 that "creators in the financial field are encouraged to complete the platform's financial professional qualification certification before publishing professional financial content. Accounts that have not been certified by the platform are prohibited from publishing professional financial content and recommending professional financial services/products."
Douyin's latest "Douyin Community Financial Industry Convention (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Convention") puts forward systematic regulations on the creation of financial content in terms of account qualifications, content management, marketing behavior, violation handling, etc.
In the specific rules, account qualifications are set as the core threshold. At the same time, the Convention also stipulates clear prohibitions on false and misleading financial information, requiring that the publication of content that goes against common sense and whose authenticity is difficult to verify is strictly prohibited, and behaviors such as exaggeration, rumor-mongering, and fabrication of false information are prohibited. There are also clear restrictions on the product operation behavior of financial institutions.
Different from the previous special rectifications carried out on issues such as illegal stock recommendations and false propaganda, this time the Convention does not focus on "point governance" around a single type of violation. Instead, it attempts to build a relatively complete and predictable system of rules for the production and dissemination of financial content to reduce the possibility of the spread of risky content from the source.
However, with the release of the convention, some members of the public also raised questions: Is Douyin pursuing the management logic of "you cannot speak without qualifications"?
In response to this, Li Liang, vice president of Douyin Group, responded on the social media platform that the focus of launching this convention is to combat the behavior of explaining highly professional content such as financial markets and recommending financial products without professional qualifications. During the governance process, the platform found that some accounts published financial content by impersonating or packaging the identities of experts or employees of financial institutions, which was highly misleading and had a bad social impact. It hopes to remove such accounts from the platform through stricter qualification requirements.
Li Liang also emphasized that the platform encourages creators who are truly engaged in in-depth and professional content sharing to complete qualification certification in advance to enhance user trust; while ordinary users are not restricted in sharing objective and compliant financial experience based on their own experience.
"Having qualifications does not mean you can say anything casually," Li Liang said. In recent years, the platform has established separate community standards for content categories with high professional thresholds and high social impact, such as medical and health, law, and finance, and has also built specialized content review capabilities and introduced reviewers with professional backgrounds to improve the rigor of content control. The ultimate goal is still to provide users with more professional and higher-quality information content.
From a larger regulatory background, the introduction of this convention is also closely related to the recent continuous strengthening of the cyberspace department’s governance of financial content.
On November 26, the Cyberspace Administration of China held a meeting to summarize and exchange experiences on optimizing the business network environment in Beijing. The meeting required that website platforms should adhere to a problem-oriented approach, strictly implement subject responsibilities, improve the ability to discover and handle information that is obviously corporate-related infringements, strengthen the account management of financial "self-media" and MCN institutions, and continuously improve the accuracy of handling illegal information and accounts. It is necessary to improve the level of standardization, optimize the mechanism for accepting and handling reports, standardize the work process for accepting and handling enterprise-related online infringement information, and refine the standards for handling enterprise-related infringement accounts. To improve governance efficiency, cybersecurity and informatization departments must have the courage to take on their responsibilities, actively explore and innovate, polish the brand of the special action "Optimizing the Business Network Environment", and summarize and promote a batch of replicable good experiences and practices.
In addition, regulatory authorities such as the State Administration of Financial Supervision, the Ministry of Public Security, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission have also continued to crack down on illegal online financial activities for a long time. During the "March 15" period this year, according to CCTV news reports, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, in conjunction with the public security, cyberspace and other departments, carried out a severe crackdown on the fabrication and spread of stock market rumors through the entire chain of monitoring, screening, disposal, warning, investment education, etc.
In September this year, the State Administration of Financial Supervision and the Ministry of Public Security jointly released the first batch of typical cases of illegal and criminal activities involving "black and gray industries" in the financial field. They launched a heavy blow to crack down on prominent illegal and criminal activities of "black and gray industries" in the financial field and achieved positive results.
In recent years, illegal and illegal activities in the financial field, such as stock market gossip, illegal and illegal stock recommendations, and spreading rumors through essays, have occurred frequently on various online platforms. With the joint efforts of all parties including supervision and platforms, the financial content ecosystem has gradually developed towards standardization and healthy development.
In fact, before the release of the Convention, Douyin had repeatedly disclosed its progress in the governance of illegal financial content.
On October 11, 2024, Douyin issued a penalty announcement for illegal securities activities such as "illegal stock recommendation". The announcement shows that in the past month alone, the platform has dealt with more than 3,600 illegal accounts related to the stock market and more than 15,000 pieces of illegal content.
On March 10 this year, Douyin issued an announcement (II) on cracking down on “illegal stock recommendation” and other illegal securities activities, clearly encouraging qualified financial and securities professionals to publish authoritative and authentic information and share professional knowledge, while continuing to combat illegal activities such as “providing paid stock recommendation services without relevant qualifications” and “fabricating and disseminating false or misleading information to affect securities transactions.”
In October this year, Douyin issued official reminders on three typical financial scams on the platform, clarifying that the platform resolutely cracks down on all types of illegal financial activities and strictly prohibits behaviors that disrupt economic and financial management order. It also announced data that in the third quarter of 2025, the platform handled more than 100,000 pieces of illegal stock recommendation and other financial violations.
Combined with this "Convention", it can be seen that Douyin has gradually tightened the standard management of financial content, forming a "four-step" financial governance, until it completely and systematically regulates illegal financial content in detail.
In an interview with a reporter from the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, Chen Duan, director of the Digital Economy Integrated Innovation and Development Center of the Central University of Finance and Economics, said that in the past period, the platform has adopted more "special rectification" methods for the governance of financial content, which is a typical reactive and campaign-style governance. It can curb illegal stock recommendations, false propaganda and other chaos in the short term, but it is more than sufficient to treat the symptoms and insufficient to address the root causes. The issuance of the "Douyin Community Financial Industry Convention" marks a systematic upgrade of platform governance ideas - from post-processing to full-chain governance that combines pre-prevention, in-process control and post-event traceability.
In Chen Duan's view, the Convention has built a basic framework for the financial content ecosystem through the three major sections of account qualifications, content management, and marketing activities, and has moved the governance focus forward to the human and behavioral level, significantly raising the cost of violations for "pseudo experts" and "fake mentors". At the same time, delineating content and marketing red lines through clear negative lists will help eliminate long-standing ambiguities in rules, stabilize the expectations of creators and users, and promote good money to drive out bad money.
"In the longer term, this type of industry convention is expected to evolve into a de facto industry reference standard, reshape the professionalism orientation of financial content production, accelerate the stratification and professionalization process of creators, and become an important interface connecting financial supervision and online content governance." Chen Duan further said, "Of course, its actual effectiveness still depends on the rigidity of execution, technical identification capabilities and the degree of cross-platform collaboration, especially in aspects such as the credibility of qualification certification and the definition of covert inducement behavior, which still need to be continuously observed and improved."
At the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Donald Trump announced to loud applause from the audience that he would fire the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and appoint a pro-digital asset regulator if he returns to the White House.
The former president had been critical of cryptocurrencies, but since he began selling his own NFTs, Trump has shifted his stance and won support from many in the cryptocurrency community, including Elon Musk and the Winklevoss twins.
Trump has not only positioned himself as a supporter of cryptocurrency, but has also raised millions of dollars in campaign funds from the industry and expressed his hope that the United States will lead the world in Bitcoin and other digital assets.
It was supposed to be a cryptocurrency conference but could easily have been mistaken for a Trump rally.
At one event, vendors hawked red hats emblazoned with the slogan “Make Bitcoin Great Again,” and the audience erupted in applause when Donald Trump promised to fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler if he returned to the White House and replace him with a regulator who loves the digital asset industry.
“I promise the Bitcoin community that the day I am sworn in, the anti-cryptocurrency movement of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will end,” Trump said at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville on Saturday, comparing cryptocurrencies to the steel industry of a century ago. “If Bitcoin is going to go to the moon,” he added, “I want the United States to be the country leading the charge.”
The speech marked a sweeping shift in the former president's attitude toward an asset class he once viewed as a crime-ridden scam when he was in office. It also signals a growing convergence between what was once an outsider political machine and an outsider financial movement that is moving into the mainstream.
Trump spoke at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville on July 27. Trump, once a critic of cryptocurrencies, has changed his attitude since he started selling his NFTs
Conventional wisdom holds that this strategy is nothing more than a classic Trump transactional relationship. He needs votes and money in what looks set to be a tight presidential race, and he's taking advantage when the Joe Biden administration cracks down on the cryptocurrency industry.
If that's the case, then the strategy clearly worked. The cryptocurrency ecosystem’s public image is dominated by cyber warriors with deep pockets, which for Trump was fertile ground for raising tens of millions in campaign funds and a legion of passionate supporters.
His new role as a cheerleader for the industry has helped him win support from the likes of Dogecoin enthusiast Elon Musk, billionaire twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, and venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.
“As Bitcoin Conference demonstrated, President Trump wants our country to regain its position as a global leader in technology, innovation and manufacturing,” said Brian Hughes, a senior adviser to the campaign. “This includes cryptocurrencies and other industries.”
All the donations and noise coming from the cryptocurrency space did not go unnoticed by the other side. Bitcoin fans circulated a letter purportedly signed by more than two dozen Democratic lawmakers and candidates on social platform X. The letter was sent to the party’s national committee urging a softer approach to digital assets.
Despite enjoying so much new support, there is another important factor in Trump’s conversion into a believer in cryptocurrencies. Put simply, he fell in love with his own-themed non-fungible tokens (NFTs) — and the backers who bought them — and that enthusiasm has turned into widespread recognition for the entire industry, according to insiders.
Trump’s questions about the valuation of digital assets have not slowed his enthusiasm for promoting NFTs. That was made abundantly clear in May when he gave impromptu remarks at a rally at Mar-a-Lago to supporters who had purchased at least 47 digital trading cards. These pop art-style portraits of the former president include images of him dressed as cowboys, superheroes and other fantasy characters.
The NFTs cost $99 each, but Trump has publicly said whether he could sell them more expensively.
"There's a big difference between $99 and $499, $599, maybe $1,000, I don't know," he told viewers, according to a video of the event during a recess in his New York hush-money criminal trial. "But I don't want to do that. I want to keep the price the same. Now, no one is going to believe it, they're going to say 'Oh, that's bullshit' about this guy."
Not long ago, Trump himself was a critic of cryptocurrencies, accusing Bitcoin and other tokens of promoting crime and criticizing the valuations constructed from "castles in the air." But Trump changed his mind after he and his wife Melania started selling NFTs.
“Trump’s NFTs were what really introduced him to the cryptocurrency community for the first time,” said Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association, a trade group that has been one of the liaisons between the Trump campaign and the cryptocurrency industry.
For a scandal-plagued industry facing multiple legal actions from the government, Trump’s pivot on cryptocurrencies has literally turned him into one of his NFT superheroes. And for Trump, the topic gives him another wedge with which to attack his Democratic opponents — a powerful one given the industry's enthusiasm for voting and unprecedented related fundraising.
The pro-cryptocurrency Fairshake Political Action Committee (PAC) and two joint super PACs have raised $170 million this election cycle, although they have primarily focused on congressional races and donated to both parties.
Trump’s symbiotic relationship with the industry is evident in Nashville: As cryptocurrency fans hailed a friendlier regulatory environment, Trump raised huge donations from them. He charged $844,600 for seating at one of his cryptocurrency “roundtables,” and $60,000 per person — $100,000 per couple — for a photo reception with him.
More money will be raised on Monday, when Mike Belshe, CEO of cryptocurrency firm BitGo, will host a fundraiser in Palo Alto, California.
While there are many celebrities in the cryptocurrency world who associate with Trump today, there are some lesser-known figures who also deserve credit — or blame — for guiding him into this wonderful world of digital assets.
One of them is Bill Zanker, founder of adult education company The Learning Annex and co-author of Think Big and Kick Ass. Zonker said he is a long-time friend of Trump and has arranged for Trump to be a speaker for the learning center.
Zanke said in an interview that he approached Trump about two and a half years ago and pitched him an idea: NFTs that featured artistic images of the former president. Zanke recalled that Trump was interested but didn’t want to call them NFTs.
"I want to call it a digital trading card on a computer," Zonker said Trump told him. "If you call them NFTs, people don't understand."
Then came the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX exchange and a spate of other industry bankruptcies in 2022 — a chain of events that left millions of victims “backpacking” and triggered a crackdown on the industry from the Biden administration.
In December 2022, Zanke went to Mar-a-Lago in what he called the "cryptic winter of winter" and asked, "Mr. President, do you still want to continue?" He said, "You know, Bill, a lot of my friends said I shouldn't do it. But I love it, let's do it."
The digital cards are released as a "MugShot Edition" and sell for $99 each.
Trump’s role in this project is anything but passive. “Every picture, he personally reviewed it,” said Bill Zanker. "He spent a lot of time on it. He loved the project and called it 'pop art.'" Zanke also added that the project inspired Trump to spend time studying cryptocurrencies and asked a lot of questions to help him understand related topics such as the Ethereum blockchain.
According to Zanke, these NFTs are so popular that each new collection sells out within hours. Then, two events were held at Mar-a-Lago, one late last year and another in May, for Trump to meet with buyers.
“He fell in love with this group of people: young, ambitious, unregulated,” Zanke said. “He was asked, ‘What do you think about cryptocurrencies?’ and he said, ‘I like it, I don’t like it all going overseas.’ Of course, that got the audience enthusiastic.”
At one point, the subject of accepting campaign donations in cryptocurrency came up, and Trump called his friends to the stage.
"'Zanke, should we accept cryptocurrency donations?'" Zanke recalled Trump asking. “I said yes. He became the crypto president.” So far, the campaign says it has raised more than $4 million in cryptocurrency donations, in addition to traditional U.S. dollar contributions from industry supporters.
The Trump Trading Card NFTs — nearly 200,000 in total, divided into three series — earned Trump and his partners more than $20 million in revenue, according to Zonker, who declined to say how the revenue was divided.
In the wake of NFT activity, the industry’s pursuit of Trump — and his pursuit of potential donors who have become rich in cryptocurrencies — continues to grow.
The next big event was in June, where Trump and his guests ate cookies and mesmerized a small group of executives from cryptocurrency miners at the Mar-a-Lago tea room. These companies own vast, high-tech data centers, conduct transactions on the blockchain, and are compensated in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.
“We talked about how to engage the Bitcoin community in the political process,” said Brian Morgenstern, head of public policy at miner Riot Platforms Inc., who previously worked at the White House and Treasury Department during the Trump administration. “If you don’t engage and talk to the candidates, you can’t change policy.”
Trump is clearly very engaged. After meeting with miners, he became a full-throated cheerleader for cryptocurrencies, posting on his Truth Social platform that he wanted all remaining Bitcoins to be "Made in the USA!!!" and saying that Bitcoin mining could be "our last line of defense against central bank digital currencies."
This refers to a central bank digital currency (CBDC), financial institutions’ response to cryptocurrencies that is still in the research phase in the United States. Critics of CBDCs warn that they could be used as surveillance tools because they make it easier for government authorities to track financial flows. Of course, they also pose strong competition to cryptocurrency stablecoins that track the value of the U.S. dollar and other fiat currencies.
A Satochip cryptocurrency wallet on display at the Bitcoin 2024 conference, showing a photo taken after Trump's assassination attempt
Trump’s circle of cryptocurrency advisers is growing, as he relies on billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk to advise the industry. His former opponent in the Republican primary, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, also said he had discussed potential cryptocurrency policy with Trump.
On Capitol Hill, he has found some cryptocurrency believers among Republican allies. Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty, who has emerged as one of Trump's campaign surrogates on cryptocurrency issues, attended a June meeting with miners at Mar-a-Lago and a Bitcoin conference in Nashville.
The cryptocurrency industry featured prominently at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee earlier this month, with Wisconsin Rep. Bryan Steil participating in a blockchain panel on cryptocurrencies and Hagerty speaking out for the industry on a manufacturing panel.
“We have to get the bureaucracy back in Washington, D.C., to play by the rules, and some of the agencies that we’re seeing have exceeded their authority and created uncertainty — and uncertainty has a very negative impact on capital investment,” Hagerty said.
Just outside the secure perimeter of the Republican National Convention, supporters handed out paper fans promoting the MAGA (Make America Great Again) memecoin, a crypto project that has recruited Trump ally Roger Stone as a partner.
The fans are the latest sign that Trump and the culture surrounding him have become a major phenomenon among traders of memecoins, one of the least innovative but riskiest coins that are easy targets for pump-and-dump scams.
MAGA is the largest Trump-related meme coin, with a total market capitalization of more than $300 million, according to tracking platform CoinGecko. Although these coins have no official connection to Trump, that has not stopped their popularity.
The team at memecoin platform Pump.fun noticed that on July 13 alone, the day after Trump’s assassination attempt, more than 2,000 Trump-related tokens were created.
Of course, there are political risks with Trump being so closely tied to such a notorious asset class if another FTX-like situation arises, or if prices simply fall causing sentiment to sour.
However, having the cryptocurrency industry itself so ideologically aligned with the Republican Party could pose greater risks, according to Hilary Allen, a professor at American University Washington College of Law who focuses on financial law.
“This may alienate some users because cryptocurrency itself is a very ideological investment,” she said. “This may increase appeal to Republican users but may alienate Democratic users.”
Trump trading card site offers real rewards to NFT purchasers, including a physical trading card featuring fragments of the suit he wore during a police photo shoot in Fulton County, Georgia, on August 24, 2023
Only time will tell whether Trump wins a second term and delivers the more favorable regulatory environment the industry wants. Currently, according to betting on Polymarket, a crypto platform that allows people outside the United States to place bets on political outcomes, Trump is the most likely to win, with an implied probability of 57%.
If he wins, friendly regulators may not be his only gift to the industry.
In Nashville, Trump said he would order the government not to sell cryptocurrencies seized in criminal cases and instead use them as the basis for what he called a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
However, Bitcoin gave up its pre-speech gains after Trump did not confirm plans to order the government to buy up to 1 million Bitcoins, while his opponent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at a meeting on Friday that Trump may make such an announcement.
Meanwhile, even amid a busy campaign schedule, Trump is plotting the next steps for his own cryptocurrency venture.
A fourth Trump NFT series is in the works, and Zanker said he hopes it will be released in August, promising it will be the "biggest and best yet" with "a lot of surprises." (Some past purchases have included real-world rewards, like a reception at Mar-a-Lago or pieces of the suit Trump wore when he was photographed as a suspect in the Georgia election extortion case.)
"We met with him before the assassination attempt to review the artwork," Zanke said. "He would look at every picture carefully."
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