{"id":4362,"date":"2026-07-27T21:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T21:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4362"},"modified":"2026-07-27T21:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T21:42:08","slug":"a-vc-says-he-declined-to-join-the-trump-familys-crypto-venture-after-cofounder-steve-witkoff-couldnt-pronounce-memecoin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4362","title":{"rendered":"A VC says he declined to join the Trump family\u2019s crypto venture after cofounder Steve Witkoff couldn\u2019t pronounce \u2018memecoin\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>According to a <em>New York magazine<\/em> feature on World Liberty, Carter declined to join upon realizing that Witkoff appeared to know very little about crypto. \u201cHe didn\u2019t know what crypto or DeFi was. He didn\u2019t know what the pitch was,\u201d Carter told <em>New York<\/em>. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Oh, okay, so there\u2019s no product. They\u2019re just doing a token.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4360\">A Nobel economist challenged Elon Musk to donate his entire $1T fortune by 2036. Musk\u2019s reply: \u2018I am actually going to do something along these lines\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The final straw, though, came when Witkoff brought up memecoins, a popular type of cryptocurrency inspired by viral memes or internet culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThe biggest giveaway was when Witko\ufb00 explained that Trump had become interested in the crypto project because \u2018Barron was getting active with meme coins\u2019 \u2014 but pronounced it \u201cme-me\u201d coins,\u201d Carter explained.<\/p>\n<p>The Witkoff anecdote came as part of a broader investigation by <em>New York<\/em> into ties between the Trump family\u2019s WLFI venture and the controversial crypto billionaire Justin Sun. The venture kicked off back in August 2024 when Trump and his two oldest sons teased a new crypto project on social media called World Liberty Financial. A month later, the company  a \u201cGold Paper\u201d\u2014a play on the industry term \u201cwhite paper,\u201d which outlines the fundamentals of a crypto project.<\/p>\n<p>The document described WLFI as a decentralized finance venture aimed at \u201cdemocratizing access to financial opportunities.\u201d Listed as cofounders were Trump, his three sons, and Steve Witkoff, now the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East. Also named were Witkoff\u2019s two sons, internet marketer Chase Herro, and former pickup artist Zak Folkman. In January 2025, Trump, who branded himself a \u201ccrypto president\u201d on the campaign trail, assumed the presidency and stepped down from his role at WLFI, as did Witkoff.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4358\">Netanyahu blasts NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani for \u2018fomenting hate\u2019 over \u2018bogus\u2019 Gaza war crimes charges<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The project has proven highly lucrative for the Trump family. Trump\u2019s latest financial disclosure, released in July, showed that $1.4 billion of his roughly $2.2 billion net worth came from crypto-related investments. His business entities generated $600 million from WLFI alone.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>As <em>New York<\/em> recounts, Sun was instrumental in helping WLFI get off the ground. A founder of the TRON blockchain and a former Trump supporter, Sun transferred $45 million to World Liberty Financial in 2024 in exchange for WLFI tokens and later joined as an advisor. According tothe magazine, Sun\u2019s involvement as a high-profile billionaire helped legitimize the project and drew in additional investors, turning it into a fundraising success\u2014until things turned sour.<\/p>\n<p>Sun says he became dismayed upon discovering that WLFI appeared designed to enrich the Trump family and a handful of insiders, but not those holding the company\u2019s tokens. Sun ultimately sued WLFI in April, accusing the company of fraud, breach of contract, and freezing his WLFI tokens. WLFI has shot back by filing a defamation claim against Sun.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Meanwhile, the price of the WLFI token has fallen more than 80% since it began trading on the open market last September, leaving holders and investors with steep losses.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4356\">Palantir spent $17.2 million flying its CEO Alex Karp around in 2025. It\u2019s part of a private-jet boom sweeping the C-suite<\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Longtime venture capitalist Nic Carter said Steve Witkoff\u2019s limited crypto knowledge dissuaded him from investing in World Liberty Financial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-donald-trump"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A VC says he declined to join the Trump family\u2019s crypto venture after cofounder Steve Witkoff couldn\u2019t pronounce \u2018memecoin\u2019 - Cross Country Moving Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4362\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A VC says he declined to join the Trump family\u2019s crypto venture after cofounder Steve Witkoff couldn\u2019t pronounce \u2018memecoin\u2019 - 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