Eric Trump: Tokenization is Charity as it Allows Anyone to Invest in What They Believe
World Liberty Financial co-founder Eric Trump stated on the Token2049 stage in Singapore that tokenization is charity because it allows anyone to invest in what they believe in.
He cited examples such as a share of Trump Tower, a Monet painting, and Taylor Swift's music. This is a statement about accessibility, not a list of completed issued products. The event took place at Marina Bay Sands, with the agenda session titled "The Future of Finance, Built in America," on October 7 in the afternoon.
He is also the Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization. In October 2025, he told the media that he was advancing the tokenization of a building under construction, envisioning selling micro-shares to retail investors with a threshold as low as $1,000, along with hotel rights, without going through banks. The paths mentioned at that time included World Liberty Financial and the stablecoin USD1, questioning why a hotel would still need to approach Deutsche Bank.
At the same conference in 2025, World Liberty Financial co-founder Zach Witkoff proposed that a token for Trump Tower in Dubai could be purchased on exchanges, and that the family's golf courses and prime properties could be put on the blockchain. Donald Trump Jr. was also present at that time. This statement expands the assets from buildings to artworks and music copyrights.
As of the end of September 2026, the scale of tokenized physical assets such as bonds, commodities, and stocks exceeded $38 billion, excluding stablecoins. Other notable guests included Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman and Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson. The conference sold 25,000 tickets, with attendees from 160 countries.
The buyers are retail investors looking to gain exposure to buildings, artworks, and copyrights through small purchases, while the sellers are issuers holding properties and brands. The event was driven by conference speeches, and if funding materializes, it would shift from bank development loans to on-chain micro-shares. Beneficiaries would be asset owners able to issue tokens and stablecoin channels, while banks relying on project loan fees and unauthorized examples of artworks and music rights holders would be under pressure.
Source: Public Information
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Eric Trump's line has shifted financing targets since October 2025. In a CoinDesk interview, he stated that hotels in Washington, Dubai, or New York no longer need to approach Deutsche Bank but can sell micro-shares directly to supporters. Trump's real estate previously relied heavily on a few major banks for development loans, with Deutsche Bank being a core creditor in the 2010s. Tokenization effectively replaces creditors and equity holders from the bank list with wallet addresses.
The flow of money is tied to World Liberty Financial and USD1. If subscriptions use their own stablecoin, primary sales first convert to stablecoin deposits, then into project companies. In 2025, Witkoff described the Dubai Trump Tower as purchasable by individual tokens, and this time he included Monet and Taylor Swift's music in the same sentence, equating the use of unauthorized cultural assets to drive traffic for real estate shares. The issuance rights remain with the building owners, not with the artist's estate or music companies.
This is analogous to Securitize putting private fund shares on-chain, and Royal previously tokenizing music royalties before shrinking. Franklin Templeton and BlackRock are dealing with treasury bonds and fund tokens, with underlying custodianship and licensed transfers. The current position is that brand owners are attempting to bypass REITs and development loans to sell fragments of prime properties directly, still at the speech stage.
This represents a transfer of pricing power. Previously, only REITs, private equity funds, and bank consortiums could price prime buildings. By breaking down pricing into $1,000 increments with micro-shares, liquidity appears to increase, while control remains with the initiators. The charitable narrative addresses sales rhetoric but does not resolve share registration under securities law, authenticity of artworks, and music copyright licensing.
ABAB News · Cognitive Law
- The accessibility narrative is sales; share registration is the asset.
- Micro-shares amplify buyers without diluting control.
- Selling under someone else's name while collecting for one's own assets.