Crypto is not all that completely different from politics. In line with Rushi Manche, the founding father of blockchain firm Motion, “Crypto is an attention game.”
It is becoming, then, that Donald Trump — the grasp of all issues consideration — is so at dwelling promoting memecoins. But it surely’s not simply Trump’s internal circle that is managed to capitalize on his crypto ventures, which embrace the $TRUMP coin and World Liberty Monetary.
As soon as a vocal crypto skeptic, the president has turn out to be the business’s largest “key opinion leader” — or KOL, in blockchain business parlance: a dealer whose portfolio is intently watched by different buyers deciding what to purchase and promote.
Trump’s foray into crypto has created a brand new go-to-market playbook for bold token peddlers like Manche — blockchain founders who understand pumping the worth of a token could be so simple as elbowing right into a sitting president’s crypto portfolio.
The president’s major car for blockchain trades is World Liberty Monetary (WLFI), a decentralized finance (DeFi) enterprise he introduced together with his sons over the summer season. After accruing greater than $400 million by promoting a token, the corporate, which doesn’t but have a product, has constructed up a portfolio containing thousands and thousands of {dollars} within the belongings of different crypto initiatives. On Wednesday, it introduced it was launching an official “strategic reserve” of crypto investments.
The trades have already raised critical issues about conflicts of curiosity, insider dealing, and the very nature of how affect is leveraged within the digital asset house. Trump’s political opponents are calling for investigations into his rising blockchain empire.
However crypto founders like Manche see World Liberty’s crypto investments as one thing completely different: a once-in-a-generation advertising alternative. “You need to have a product roadmap that makes sense,” mentioned Manche. “But you also need to have a strategy for your token.” And what higher approach to enhance the worth of your cryptocurrency than by publicly tying it to the chief of the free world?
Transferring MOVE
Twenty-two-year-old Rushi Manche is about to launch Motion L2, an Ethereum-based blockchain. Regardless of his youth, he is earned a popularity throughout the business as a pointy operator, having secured over $38 million in enterprise funding instantly after faculty.
Forward of Donald Trump’s second time period, Manche labored to forge ties together with his circle. On the eve of the inauguration, he attended the Crypto Ball, an occasion connecting crypto business leaders with political insiders. There, he engaged with key figures like Zak Folkman and Chase Herro, leaders of Trump’s World Liberty Monetary.
On Jan. 28, when information broke that World Liberty Monetary had acquired roughly $2 million within the Motion’s MOVE tokens, Manche pounced.
Instantly, he took to social media: “We are proud to be the first altcoin, first modern blockchain platform, and first alternative [virtual machine] under the new administration,” he wrote in an X post. “MOVE is Made in America.”
Then, in media interviews throughout the day, he described the WLFI purchases as a positive sign for Movement’s trajectory: “It’s a good sign that the president of the United States’s DeFi program is purchasing MOVE,” he told CoinDesk. “It shows a good sign of faith, and good solidarity with Movement ecosystem.”
Rumors suddenly started swirling on X that Elon Musk was eyeing Movement as a potential infrastructure partner for his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Manche distanced himself from the rumor, claiming he had only heard about it when the rest of the public did. But he didn’t discourage the speculation, either. “We can’t really talk much about it,” he told CoinDesk. “Our papers have never hit the DOGE desk,” but “we work with a variety of government agencies and institutions.”
The MOVE price briefly surged by 20% within hours of the news.
The World Liberty Financial play
Manche is far from the only crypto founder to recognize the value of associating with the Trump blockchain brand.
Donald Trump announced World Liberty Financial in mid-October, during the final days of his presidential campaign. The company says it is building a crypto lending platform that advances American values, but it has yet to launch a product. Within days of its formal announcement, however, it began selling a token, WLFI.
Read more: Inside the Trump Crypto Project Linked to a $2M DeFi Hack and Former Pick-Up Artist
According to a disclaimer on the World Liberty website, Donald Trump holds a majority stake in the venture through his company, DT Marks LLC, and is entitled to around 75% of WLFI token sale proceeds. The token provides holders with a vote on the eventual platform’s direction. Currently, it is impossible to trade and has restricted sales to non-Americans and accredited U.S. investors only.
Due to these restrictions, WLFI struggled to meet its fundraising targets initially. What’s the point of buying a cryptocurrency that you can’t sell for a profit? Many in the industry—including some of the president’s own supporters—criticized the sale as a cash grab.
But Justin Sun, a Chinese-born crypto founder, was among the first to reveal how WLFI might still appeal to a very specific type of investor. On Nov. 27, he bought $30 million in the incoming president’s WLFI tokens, making him the project’s largest single investor. Sun then lobbed praise onto Trump and WLFI in a series of social media posts.
Today, Sun is perhaps best known for purchasing a banana taped to a wall for $6.2 million, but the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — a department now under the control of Donald Trump’s White House — previously charged him with fraud and market manipulation. The case is ongoing.
The president’s crypto company, meanwhile, has purchased millions of dollars in TRX — the native token of Sun’s TRON blockchain — and WBTC, a Bitcoin derivative with suspected ties to Sun. World Liberty also named Sun an official adviser.
Blockworks reported on Feb. 3 that World Liberty Financial was shopping around a deal: if a project buys at least $10 million worth of WLFI tokens (with a 10% fee), WLFI will buy an equivalent amount of the project’s native token. Movement Labs and Tron denied making such agreements.
World Liberty’s investments are expected to accelerate with the establishment of a strategic reserve, but a lawyer for World Liberty Financial, Alex Golubitsky, said he could not comment on whether WLFI’s investments count as an official Trump endorsement.
The Trump family, however, seems aware of its power to move markets. On Feb. 3, shortly after World Liberty Financial reallocated a large share of its tokens into ether (ETH), the native token of Ethereum, Eric Trump tweeted, “In my opinion, its a great time to add $ETH. You can thank me later.”
He quickly edited the tweet, removing the “You can thank me later” line.
The art of the pump
Over the past several months, Rushi Manche made a concerted effort to ingratiate himself in Trump-world. He attended the crypto ball, an industry event on the eve of the inauguration that mixed figures from the administration with crypto industry leaders. He has also made frequent trips to Washington, D.C. where he has lobbied on behalf of the crypto industry with people like Zak Folkman and Chase Herro — the leaders of World Liberty Financial.
On Feb. 10, when WLFI made a second round of MOVE purchases, Manche immediately ran back the same playbook he had used a week earlier.
Within minutes, reporters received a press release from Movement’s PR team: MOVE was now “one of the crucial important holdings in Trump’s portfolio,” the release read, and Manche was “out there to debate what Trump’s funding means for the venture, its position in advancing blockchain, and the broader implications for the crypto business.”
Manche again took to social media, reposting a photo of himself and Donald Trump Jr. alongside a screenshot of World Liberty’s MOVE purchases. The photo was taken at an event for Ondo, another project in World Liberty’s crypto portfolio.
“[P]olitics is a very powerful [go-to-market] play for crypto corporations immediately,” Manche mentioned in a prolonged X submit a couple of minutes later. “[M]y sense is that the following 5 years shall be an area race for crypto hegemony – the groups that may lock within the relationships with federal businesses, institutional capital, and world leaders are those that survive.”
The post drew heated debate. Some viewed Manche’s government-centric posturing as a shrewd business move. Others condemned it as a betrayal of crypto’s anti-establishment ethos — a shortsighted attempt to exploit Trump’s fame to pump a token ahead of a major product launch.
Manche is unfazed by the backlash. He likens Movement Labs’ approach to that of Cardano and Ripple — projects that, despite heavy scrutiny, have maintained strong market positions due to their deep understanding of how to earn and keep attention.
“Positive, you could have anons on Twitter calling them scams,” he said. “However look who’s profitable.”
He pointed to Ripple’s “XRP Army,” whose fervor has kept the project relevant despite technical critics and regulatory scrutiny. Ripple’s XRP token has topped price charts for nearly a decade, Manche said, by building “the most important cult on the planet.”
Similarly, he praised Charles Hoskinson, the outspoken founder of Cardano, for having “mastered the artwork of consideration” and getting Cardano’s ADA token into the hands of so many investors. Hoskinson has “contributed extra to the house” than the very same Ethereum developers who dismiss Cardano as “a damaged blockchain,” Manche said.
“In case you ask a taxi driver what they’re shopping for, they’re going to inform you XRP, ADA — not even ETH,” said Manche. “That is what the true individuals are speaking about outdoors of our little bubble.”
As for Movement, Manche’s strategy is clear: align with Trump and grab attention, for better or worse. In his words: “Love me, hate me, simply do not forget me.”
