Token2049: Eric Trump believes the modern financial system is ‘broken’ and crypto will take over

Eric Trump talks to World Liberty Financial’s Zach Witkoff and Tron creator Justin Sun about how the institutional banks will be left ‘in the dust’ if they fail to embrace crypto.

On May 1 during Token2049’s fireside chat session, Eric Trump opened up about how he and his family were “canceled” by the modern financial system, which led him to discover the world of cryptocurrency.

“Modern finance is absolutely broken. And so when the banks came after our family, I’ll never forget it, we became the most canceled people in the world all because we’re associated with politics in the United States,” said Trump on the Token2049 stage.

“And honestly, I really do believe that cryptocurrency, and certainly our venture into cryptocurrency, is going to make the big banks regret that,” he continued.

He criticized how financial institutions like banks are still moving at a relatively slower pace compared to crypto firms. Trump used the process of applying for a loan at a bank as an example, as it usually took 90 to 120 days for it to be processed. Meanwhile, blockchain technology makes it possible for people to move large sums of money while making it public and accessible for all to track.

“They’re pushing paper forms out there, things that could be done on blockchain instantaneously, things that could be done cheaper, faster, and more efficiently,” said Trump.

Tron (TRX) creator Justin Sun echoed Trump’s sentiment, stating that he noticed how in the United States, people’s trust towards financial institutions have become incredibly low in recent times. However, with the blockchain, people can regain a sense of transparency that modern banks lack.

“Nobody knows what’s going on in the bank, they just move like $5 million around and the customer don’t know even what happened. But on blockchain, this kind of thing will never happen again because everything will be transparent on the blockchain,” said Sun.

World Liberty Financial co-founder Zach Witkoff stated that the reason why the project was founded in the first place was because of the “gaps in the traditional financial system.” Therefore, the project seeks to democratize access to the financial system, particularly through merging it with decentralized finance.

“We’ll wake up in a world in four or five years, where the two things will kind of just merge. I think that you’ll see DeFi and traditional finance just sort of come together in a way that they can’t ever really be untwined again,” said Witkoff.

Modern finance risks getting left in the dust

Zach Witkoff stated that financial institutions must learn to adapt to the changing economic landscape that is becoming more and more crypto-led overtime. If they refuse, he continued, they may risk getting left behind.

“I think time will tell, you know, which choice they make, but hopefully they’re on the right side of history,” said Witkoff.

Eric Trump believes it will be difficult for major financial institutions to switch gears and embrace crypto, mostly due to how their entire business model is built on the old-fashioned mechanisms that get erased by crypto.

“If the banks don’t embrace this, if they don’t buy into it, if they don’t embrace crypto right now, they’re just going to be extinct because you’re actually eliminating the function,” said Trump.

In terms of technological advancement, he observed that crypto is advancing by at least “100 times as fast as these big banks.” Not only that, it has also become a lot more accessible for unbanked populations.

“What crypto really does is bring an even playing field to the globe. If you don’t have access to Jamie Dimon, if you don’t have access to the biggest financial institutions, congratulations you have your phone,” said Trump.