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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsUFC to pay White House fighters in crypto issued by Trump company
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) announced on Friday that it will pay bonuses to fighters in a form of cryptocurrency issued by Trump family business World Liberty Financial at the heavily publicized White House mixed martial arts event on Sunday.
The development connects the Trump familys financial interests to the high-profile UFC competition being promoted on government property. The competition on the south White House lawn is scheduled for 14 June, Donald Trumps birthday.
The UFC said some fighters will receive bonuses in World Liberty Financial crypto called stablecoins, whose value is pegged to the US dollar. World Liberty named the currency USD1.
World Liberty is a venture of the Trump family and the family of Steven Witkoff, Trumps friend and special envoy to the Middle East. The company is now listed as an official sponsor of UFC Freedom 250, the fight scheduled for Sunday. The use of its stablecoin in the fight would appear to boost efforts to have it used more more broadly.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle said there is no conflict of interest and that Trumps assets are in a trust managed by his children. The Fake News continued attempts to fabricate conflicts of interest are irresponsible and reinforce the publics distrust in what they read.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/14/white-house-ufc-fighters-crypto
wcmagumba
(6,838 posts)Turbineguy
(40,273 posts)underpants
(197,641 posts)This sounds like advertising, Todd Phillips, an expert in crypto at the Klaros Group, told the Guardian. He said Paying the fighters in the USD1 stablecoin would have the same economic function as writing them a check but announcing to the world they are doing it in USD1 sounds like they are adverting to the world that USD1 is out there and that it is connected to the UFC and the White House.
FalloutShelter
(14,711 posts)orangecrush
(31,700 posts)Initech
(109,525 posts)chicoescuela
(3,318 posts)Cash that crap in immediately
sakabatou
(46,506 posts)Bluetus
(3,239 posts)Crypto boosters are quick to claim that the great thing about crypto is that it is completely transparent. Anybody can see any transaction.
But the opposite is true. You might be able to see a bunch of numbers, but if people don't wish to reveal their identity, it is difficult-to-impossible to figure out who the parties to the transaction are or the purpose of the transactions.
That is true of the big cryptos (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.) It is 100X less transparent with these pop-up cryptos like Trump coins. They are all about money laundering and other crimes.
All of this is a massive pay-to-play system, and Democrats should be saying that loud and clear every day. I heard Booker make that case forcefully yesterday. More of that, please. And we need to tie all of these bribe schemes to the suffering average Americans are enduring.
As an aside, courage is contagious. First it was Bernie. Then it was AOC who was willing to shout the truth, knowing that she would be pummeled, often by her own party. Then Newsom and Pritzker joined in. Then Mamdani took it to the next level by campaigning on a very specific set of progressive policies for NYC. The establishment lost their shit. But Mamdani won, and he had a mandate, and those progressive policies are working. And Platner has taken the clear focus of Mamdani and beat the "safe" candidate whom practically all the Dem insiders were pushing.
Now Ossoff and Booker are bringing it. Andy Beshear started his presidential run with a podcast that sounded like, "Gee golly, let's all just get along like I do here in Kentucky." But if you listen to him, he is learning that this is no time for "Gee, golly". He is starting to amp it up. And Talarico is bringing a firm but progressive Christian voice to the dialog, as is Rev. Warnock.
Courage is contagious. The American people have been begging for this for 20 years. Americans are not looking for, "Reach across the aisle." They know what is on the other side of that aisle, and it sucks. Americans are in an "Eat the rich" mode, and the candidates that offer strategies and legislation to turn this around will be successful. Keep it coming.
Matthew28
(1,918 posts)front of the white house is a place for this. I am not against UFC or motor sports but this just lowers the image of the white house as a place of respect.
orangecrush
(31,700 posts)JoihInMableton
(8 posts)Matthew28 wrote, "front of the white house is a place for this. I am not against UFC or motor sports but this just lowers the image of the white house as a place of respect."
Matthew, that is the point of doing it there. They trash everything as they go to destroy any respect for the national institutions. And once those are destroyed? Ouch.
snot
(11,900 posts)than brain, apparently.