‘Crypto Punks’ Behind Trump’s Dubious New Business Venture

Able to offer anything to anyone, online salesperson Chase Herro boldly refers to himself as a “dirtbag of the internet.” Operating a business called Date Hotter Girls, Zachary Folkman provided tips under a pseudonym on how to approach women in bars.

The two guys have been serial entrepreneurs over the past ten or so years, leaving a path of lawsuits and unpaid bills and taxes behind.

These days they are business associates of former President Donald J. Trump.

‘Crypto Punks’ Behind Trump’s Dubious New Business Venture

World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company Mr. Trump and his three sons revealed on a livestream last month, is driven by Mr. Herro and Mr. Folkman. Declared by the Republican presidential contender, his new business will enable the United States to become “the crypto capital of the world.”

Donald Trump Jr., his eldest son, claimed Mr. Herro and Mr. Folkman would enable a digital dollar-based financial revolution be engineered. “You could put them in a Goldman Sachs boardroom and they will smoke the people in the room,” he remarked.

‘Crypto Punks’ Behind Trump’s Dubious New Business Venture


Other crypto analysts have voiced uncertainty, even concern, regarding the company, the former president’s participation and his associates. Cornell University’s economics professor Eswar Prasad noted Mr. Herro and Mr. Folkman lacked the technical or financial acumen needed to make the business successful.

Said John Reed Stark, a former senior officer with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the idea behind it—which was presented as innovative—seemed to be familiar from other current cryptocurrency projects.

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