Molly White's Citation Needed - Trump to launch branded crypto trading application

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

New crypto trading and wallet application, created in partnership with Magic Eden, invites fans of President Trump to buy his memecoin. Originally published on June 3, 2025.

I'm Molly White, and you're listening to the audio feed for the citation-needed newsletter. You can see the text version of the newsletter online at citation-needed.news. Trump to launch branded crypto-trading application. A new crypto-trading and wallet application, created in partnership with Magic Eden, invites fans of President Trump to buy his meme coin. This issue was originally published on June 3, 2025. President Trump is on June 3, 2025. on the cusp of adding a Trump-branded cryptocurrency wallet and trading application to his ever-expanding

list of cryptocurrency business ventures. Named the Trump wallet, and branded similarly to the Trump meme coin issued by the president shortly before his inauguration, the project will encourage fans of President Trump to trade the Trump meme coin, as well as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency assets. The project, which has not previously been reported, is being developed in partnership with a cryptocurrency firm Magic Eden. Though the project has yet to be announced by either the Trump team or Magic Eden, a web application inviting users to sign up for a waitlist became visible on the TrumpWallet.com domain on the morning of June 3rd, suggesting an announcement is imminent. The domain had recently changed hands on May 2nd. The page also links to a Twitter account that was

registered in May. A banner on the waitlist website encourages signups by promising, quote, $1 million in Trump rewards, and a terms and conditions page outlines a planned promotion in which those who sign up for the app will be entered to win, quote, Trump boxes, containing between 1 and 50 Trump meme coins, valued at $11.30 to about $565 at current prices, which will be distributed based on a referral program. There is also a random drawing for one waitlist entrant to receive $100,000 in Trump tokens. The terms of the deal between Trump entities and Magic Eden have not been disclosed, but his profits from other crypto projects have stemmed from revenue sharing agreements, licensing his likeness to be used in crypto projects, and direct stakes in the underlying businesses.

Trump's meme coin and NFT projects were the brainchild of longtime Trump associate Bill Zanker, but it's not yet clear if he has a role in this project. A Trump crypto wallet is only the latest in a long and ever-growing list of Trump, Trump crypto ventures, which include the meme coin, the World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency platform and stable coin issuer, planned crypto ETFs by Trump's Truth Social platform, and several NFT projects. World Liberty Financial also plans to launch a decentralized trading application, and the CEO of Truth Social's parent company, TMTG, has also expressed plans to expand into the decentralized finance or defy world, leaving questions as to whether these various Trump-affiliated

crypto projects, some of which are managed by separate entities, might wind up competing with one another. Ethics watchdogs, members of Congress, and even some members of Trump's crypto world fan base have expressed growing concerns about Trump's crypto entanglements, including the degree to which he is personally profiting from the Office of the Presidency and from businesses in an industry he has been rapidly deregulating. On May 6th, the Senate's permanent subcommittee on investigations opened a preliminary inquiry into the Trump token, World Liberty Financial, and Trump's other ventures. Magic Eden and Slinghot Finance. Magic Eden began as an NFT trading platform in 2021, and has received venture funding amounting to around $150 million from backers including paradigm, Sequoia,

Coinbase ventures, and electric capital. The company recently branched out into wider digital asset trading with their acquisition of Slinghot Finance just this April. Slingshot Finance is a defy crypto trading application and self-custodial wallet. Slinghot boasts that it allows users to trade over 5 million different cryptocurrencies. Slinghot's App Store listings advertise that traders can buy and sell popular tokens including Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, and Chainlink, or meme coins, including, quote, Trump, fart coin, giga, and bonk. The mock-up of the Trump Wallet on the Waitlist website resembles the Slingshot Finance application somewhat,

with identical navigation items showing trending cryptocurrencies and a leaderboard. The Waitlist website also uses Slingshot Finance's privacy policy and terms and conditions documents instead of its own, although these may be placeholders to be replaced when the waitlist officially goes live. However, the Trump Wallet Waitlist website shares little in the way of information about the final design and functionality of the the Future Trump app, which could be a completely separate product, a re-skin of the Slingshot app, or a version of the app with more limited functionality and token offerings. Slingshot currently does little to moderate the tokens listed on its platform, some of which have offensive names or seek to trick buyers into purchasing identically

named tokens as well-known projects, raising questions of whether an official Trump-branded app may also invite users to buy fake Trump tokens, or tokens named for racial, slurs. Slingshot earns revenue through swap fees. Additional fees charged to customers making transactions on the app. It's not yet evident whether fees collected by the Trump wallet will go to Trump-affiliated entities, Magic Eden, or be split between the two. Magic Eden may also intend to profit from the popularity of its Trump wallet by prominently listing its own ME token for trading, which it launched in August 24. While the token is nowhere near as popular as Bitcoin and Solana, which are a among the 10 most popularly traded cryptocurrencies, the mock-up of the app nevertheless prominently

features M.E. just below it, which is currently ranked 296 on coin market cap's list of popular tokens. The terms and conditions for the Trump Box's promotion disclaim any collaboration with outside parties, reading, quote, this promotion is sponsored and administered exclusively by slingshot finance, its affiliates, and parent entities, and is in no way sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with X, Truth Social, or any other third parties. Magic Eden and Trump On May 22nd, Magic Eden, CEO and co-founder Jack Liu posted a photograph from the Trump meme coin dinner, where he posed alongside Magic Eden's chief business officer Chris Akivan and

slingshot founder Clinton Bembray. quote, honored to be at the Trump crypto dinner with at Get Trump Memes, going to be a great night, he wrote. Attendees spent between 55,000 to nearly $38 million a piece on Trump meme coins to secure invitations to the event. The history between Trump and Magic Eden goes back further than that. In March 2024, the Trump Cards NFT project announced it was moving to Magic Eden, which they said had, quote, set up a dedicated team to help you manage your Trump digital trading. cards collection. Regulatory questions. Self-custodial wallets and decentralized finance remain in somewhat of a regulatory vacuum and draft cryptocurrency market structure legislation championed by the Trump

administration and currently under discussion in Congress seeks to explicitly carve out defy from the remit of both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the two primary regulatory agencies responsible for crypto markets. In April, Trump repealed the IRS's defy broker rule, which would have required defy protocols like Slingshot to collect and disclose information to tax authorities about transactions on their platforms and the identities of those making them. As it stands, Slingshot Finance does not collect know-your-customer information on its customers, although those who use credit cards, debit cards, or payment apps like PayPal to purchase tokens on the app, do have to submit KYC information

to Slingshots' payment processing partner Moon Pay. Slingshots terms and conditions prohibit users who reside in sanctioned countries, such as North Korea, Iran, and Russia, from using its app. However, without collecting KYC information, it's not clear to what extent they successfully enforce those restrictions. It's not entirely clear whether Magic Eden will build out a KYC program for the Trump wallet, or if it, too, will allow users to transact anonymously. The Trump Boxes' promotion limits winners to residents,

of the United States, and the promotion terms suggest that it's possible KYC will apply to all wallet registrants. Magic Eden and spokespeople for President Trump did not immediately respond to inquiries about the project. Thanks for listening to this issue of the citation needed newsletter. If you would like to support my work with a free or pay what you want subscription to the citation needed newsletter, or if you would like to receive these issues in your email, go to citation needed.new.news slash sign up. If you enjoyed the podcast version of this episode, please consider leaving a rating or review

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