Eric Trump told attendees at a cryptocurrency conference that he wants some big banks to “go extinct,” echoing complaints from other members of the Trump family about the traditional financial system.
“Honestly, I would love to see some of the big banks go extinct, because, honestly, they deserve it,” Trump said Wednesday while speaking on a panel with his brother, Donald Trump Jr., at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas.
The event brought together many of the top figures in the cryptocurrency industry along with political supporters at a time when Bitcoin is near its all-time high above $110,000.
President Donald Trump appeared at the conference last year and used his speech to showcase his embrace of the industry, leading to a wave of political donations from cryptocurrency companies and executives. This year, Trump’s administration was represented by Vice President JD Vance, who told a cheering crowd that their advocacy had been effective.
“The first piece of advice: take the momentum of your political involvement in 2024 and carry it forward to 2026,” Vance said.
“When it comes to crypto, the last several years have made it clear we are talking about genuine, ground-up innovation, one that’s already improving the wellbeing of tens of millions of our fellow citizens,” Vance added.
Since taking office, Trump has pushed for more crypto-friendly policies at the same time that his family has pursued a wide array of new business opportunities in the industry. Trump’s personal wealth is now closely tied to the value of Bitcoin and other digital tokens, creating concerns about conflicts of interest from ethics experts and other politicians.
The Trump brothers appeared on a panel with partners in their new mining venture American Bitcoin, which was started earlier this year. The panel participants encouraged consumers to buy Bitcoin.
“You don’t have to buy $100,000 in Bitcoin, buy whatever percent you can,” Trump Jr. said.
In a report released Wednesday, the Federal Reserve said that 8% of US adults hold cryptocurrency to use it for financial transactions. This was “at similar levels to the prior year,” but “down from 12 percent in 2021, the first time the survey asked about cryptocurrency,” the report said.
The Trump brothers spoke to complaints in the industry about traditional banks shutting down accounts that had links to cryptocurrency businesses, which has been referred to as de-banking. They mentioned on Wednesday that the Trump family had been hit by similar issues. The Trump Organization has sued Capital One for closing the company’s accounts after Trump’s first term in office.
The consumer advocacy organization Better Markets wrote a report earlier this year arguing that the focus on debanking is an “attempt to pressure bank regulator to ignore,” some of the “known crypto risks and overlook other potential risks crypto poses to banks and the banking system.”
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
