The family of U.S. President Donald Trump has allegedly sent a cease-and-desist letter to two entities behind a forthcoming — and already heavily disputed — Trump-branded crypto wallet, according to a Thursday report from Bloomberg.
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Since the announcement of the so-called $TRUMP Wallet (named for the President’s eponymous memecoin) earlier this week, Trump’s three sons — Don Jr., Eric, and Barron — have all publicly repudiated the project, saying that neither the Trump family nor its firm, the Trump Organization, is connected to or otherwise authorized the $TRUMP Wallet.
“This project is not authorized by @Trump,” Eric Trump wrote in an X post. “I would be extremely careful using our name in a project that has not been approved and is unknown to anyone in our organization.”
While Trump’s sons were distancing themselves from the allegedly unauthorized crypto wallet on social media, lawyers for World Liberty Financial — one of the Trump family-linked crypto ventures, which is currently at work on its own crypto wallet — were, according to Bloomberg, drafting cease-and-desist letters to the two firms responsible for the project: non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Magic Eden and GetTrumpMemes.com, the website behind the $TRUMP memecoin. Bill Zanker, a long-time Trump associate, owns GetTrumpMemes.com through his Florida-based LLC, Fight Fight Fight.
According to data from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, the creators of the $TRUMP memecoin netted $320 million in fees, while the majority of retail traders lost money.
Though the Trump family has worked with Zanker and his companies on crypto ventures before — including four of Trump’s NFT launches before his re-election and the recent, controversial dinner for top holders of the $TRUMP memecoin — the decades-old relationship appears to have soured.
CoinDesk reached out to Magic Eden, the Trump Organization, and World Liberty Financial for comment.