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Donald Trump and his sons are promoting a new crypto platform as the Republican presidential nominee courts the digital asset sector just 50 days before the US election.

Trump, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, along with New York-based property developer and major Trump donor Steve Witkoff and sons Alex and Zach Witkoff, joined an X Spaces conversation on Monday where World Liberty Financial was officially announced.

The company says its “mission is crystal clear: make crypto and America great by driving the mass adoption of stablecoins and decentralised finance”. Few additional details were offered, although several speakers described a desire to improve accessibility and usability for crypto users. A token would also be offered, said Corey Caplan, an adviser to the project.

“We’re embracing the future with crypto and leaving the slow and outdated big banks behind,” Trump said in a video last week teasing the announcement.

During the interview at his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday, Trump told moderator and “proud crypto bro” Farokh Sarmad that conversations with his sons changed his mind on the benefits of digital assets. 

“He talks about his wallet — He’s got four wallets or something,” said Trump of his 18-year-old son Barron. “And I’m saying, ‘What is a wallet? Explain this to me.’”

“It’s almost like younger people know it a lot better than older people,” added Trump during the interview, a day after he was targeted in an apparent assassination attempt on a golf course in Florida.

“I think decentralised finance is the way of the future,” said Steve Witkoff during Monday’s event.

Zak Folkman, an employee at the company, said World Liberty Financial would not “rebuild the wheel” but use “simple products”, interacting with tokens known as stablecoins, whose value is tied to the US dollar.

The company has not given many details of how it will operate or what products it will offer. It warned on X on Monday night: “Beware of Scams! Fake tokens & AirDrop offers are circulating. We aren’t live yet!” 

Trump’s pro-crypto comments marked a departure from his previous views. He has said the value of cryptocurrencies is “based on thin air” and that investing in them is “potentially a disaster waiting to happen.”

But Trump has embraced digital assets during the 2024 campaign, accepting donations in cryptocurrencies and calling for the US to be the “crypto capital of the planet.”

He has won the support of investors in the sector such as influential venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Gemini exchange co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss and Kraken exchange co-founder Jesse Powell.

Crypto groups have increasingly exerted their power, raising hundreds of millions of dollars to support sympathetic candidates and intensifying a lobbying campaign against Gary Gensler, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who has cracked down on the industry.

In July, Trump promised at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville that he would “fire” Gensler on his first day in office, to a huge roar from the audience.

In an interview on the social media platform X, former President Donald Trump spoke publicly for the first time about the apparent attempted assassination the U.S. Secret Service thwarted on Sunday.

The interview, focused on his sons’ new cryptocurrency initiative and conducted by a crypto influencer, meandered to many of Trump’s typical campaign trail talking points.

He started by lauding the Secret Service, saying they did a “great job” Sunday in protecting him during the incident while he played golf at his course in West Palm Beach, Fla. He said he heard four to five gunshots and was whisked away in a golf cart.

He joked that he “would have loved to sink that last putt.”

He recounted the Secret Service agent who noticed the barrel of a gun in the bushes at the perimeter of the course, and started shooting. He went on to describe the apprehension of the alleged gunman, who authorities said didn’t fire his gun.

Trump also recalled an assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pa., in June. He said the attempt on Sunday was a “much better result” because there was no loss of life, as there was in June, when one man died and two others were injured, apart from Trump who suffered a wound on his ear.

He also recalled a conversation with President Biden Monday, saying he was “very nice” on the call and that Biden asked whether Trump needed more people on his detail.

“We do need more people on my detail because we have 50, 60,000 people showing up to events,” Trump said.

“And he couldn’t have been nicer,” Trump added of Biden. Trump did heavily criticize the policies of the Biden administration, as well as Biden and Vice President Harris personally, as is typical in his campaign appearances.

This comes after Trump blamed the “rhetoric” of Biden and Harris for the apparent attempt on his life in an interview with Fox News. In a post on X, he called Harris “hateful.”

Trump has often used incendiary language in his public remarks.

His running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, repeated that on the campaign trail Monday night at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Georgia Victory dinner in Atlanta.

“No one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months and two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months,” Vance stated. “I’d say that’s pretty strong evidence that the left needs to, to tone down the rhetoric and needs to cut this crap out.”