Viewpoint by: Joshua Chu, co-chair of the Hong Kong Web3 Association
China’s control over cryptocurrency liquidity in Hong Kong provides it unmatched power over the Trump household’s crypto wealth. This utilize lets Beijing affect the household’s monetary fate– and possibly US-China relations– through market relocations. As Eric Trump check outs Hong Kong, this crypto-political nexus signals a brand-new age of worldwide power.
Cryptocurrency is no longer viewed as simply the brand-new monetary development around the block. Virtual properties have actually ended up being effective geopolitical instruments figuring out the fates of countries.
As Imran Khalid stated, “China, by contrast [to the US], has actually played the long video game. It selected discussion over drama, and concept over justification.”
China’s increase and growing control and supremacy over the Web3 economy were likewise marked by its thoroughly managed versatile liquidity control structure through a parallel hedge in Hong Kong. When considering this level of control, integrated with the Trump household’s unmatched and increasing dependence on digital properties for wealth, it exposes a subtle yet definitive type of impact that Beijing can wield.
Trump household’s crypto wealth rise
United States President Donald Trump assaulted Bitcoin (BTC) throughout his very first presidency, stating it’s “not cash” and “based upon thin air.” This position had actually made an apparent U-turn by 2025.
In a Fox News interview with Donald Trump Jr., he exposed that the household “didn’t have an option” however to enter crypto after banks declined to do service with them after the Jan. 6 “rubbish.” As a politically exposed individual (PEP), this was an informing turn-around.
Banks and banks are typically more stringent when handling PEPs since their popular positions typically imply they end up being targets for bribery and corruption, yielding a greater danger of monetary criminal offense entanglement with illegal cash laundering.
Given that starting into crypto, the Trump household has actually moved significantly in favor of crypto as a single engine of individual wealth. In July, it was reported that the Trump household’s crypto endeavors control their portfolio, representing 40% of their $2.9 billion net worth.
These endeavors consist of World Liberty Financial, which has actually effectively raised numerous countless dollars through token sales, consisting of the TRUMP and MELANIA memecoins. Eric Trump’s participation in American Bitcoin has actually even more enhanced the household’s crypto direct exposure.
This crypto direct exposure is unmatched for political households in the United States, if not the whole world. It has even more focused wealth in a property class understood for its hyper-volatility, which, in turn, is now a market that is linked with Hong Kong’s certified exchanges– exchanges that are at the center of China’s crypto liquidity method.
While this environment presents increased monetary danger, it at the same time empowers China with a vital lever.
China’s crypto liquidity method
China’s statement to liquidate taken virtual properties by means of Hong Kong’s certified exchanges is not simply police house cleaning however a core tactical relocation in Beijing’s worldwide crypto aspirations. This liquidity injection strategy, combined with the LEAP Digital Assets Policy 2.0, intends to turn Hong Kong into the dominant virtual possession center that China can make use of as a market value car.
Related: China’s crypto liquidation prepares expose its grand method
The “nationwide group” is a term that is widely known in Hong Kong’s (and higher Asia’s) monetary circles. It makes up sovereign wealth funds and other state-backed entities, with properties supposedly well over $1 trillion. At first formed in action to the marketplace crash in 2015, the nationwide group put $17 billion into the marketplaces and was credited for reducing the dangers by 30% -45% throughout the intervention.
Quick forward to 2025, the nationwide group is proof that China’s strategy to liquidate taken crypto is not simply an “offloading” action. Rather, entities like the nationwide group can likewise purchase up any liquidating crypto, control market supply and need to support, pump up or deflate possession worths as Beijing desires.
China’s grand method is vibrant and versatile. It’s a sharp contrast with the United States, which has actually kept a passive hodl-only reserve policy, doing not have the versatility to affect liquidity or react efficiently to cost volatility.
To this end, China stays among the couple of nations with the distinct mix of a large liquidatable swimming pool of virtual properties and a nationwide group operating outside the boundaries of mainland China, consisting of the sovereign wealth fund in Hong Kong with over $1 trillion on standby.
This double ability provides China an exceptional methods to manage evaluations, efficient in pressing costs to increase, fall or support at Beijing’s discretion. Thinking about the increasing variety of business and nations following the Bitcoin treasury method, Beijing will have unmatched impact over such corporations and countries.
Through Hong Kong, China has actually developed an essential to sealing the Trump household’s tradition, either to catapult his household wealth to the moon or turn him into the beggar king if he misbehaves.
United States policy softens towards China while pressing others
China’s synchronised control over several phases of the virtual possession market price chain allows Beijing to effectively handle the supply and need (which crypto relies greatly on for its appraisal) and prices characteristics simultaneously, efficiently commanding the crypto market (just like its favored design) instead of being a simple individual in it.
For instance, the Trump administration’s difficult position towards India for importing Russian oil is contrasted by its leniency towards China, which, as kept in mind by lots of press reporters, is a far bigger importer of Russian energy.
The selective pressure exposes China’s higher geopolitical utilize, which, on the surface area, seems everything about unusual earths however, much deeper down, might consist of monetary sway over politically linked stars such as the Trump household.
Eric Trump’s upcoming tribute to Hong Kong’s upcoming crypto conference signifies this crypto nexus. His involvement highlights how securely the First Household’s monetary and political fortunes are stitched into the material of China’s tactical crypto market.
Viewpoint by: Joshua Chu, co-chair of the Hong Kong Web3 Association.
This short article is for basic info functions and is not planned to be and must not be taken as legal or financial investment suggestions. The views, ideas, and viewpoints revealed here are the author’s alone and do not always show or represent the views and viewpoints of Cointelegraph.