Opinion: Joshua Chu, co-chair of Hong Kong Web3 Association
China’s control over Hong Kong’s cryptocurrency liquidity gives an unprecedented power over the wealth of the Trump family’s cryptocurrency. This leverage allows Beijing to influence the economic fate of its family and potentially its relationship with the US through market movements. When Eric Trump visits Hong Kong, this cryptopolitical bond marks a new era of global power.
Cryptocurrency is no longer seen as a new financial innovation around the block. Virtual assets have become a powerful geopolitical device that determines the fate of a nation.
As Imran Khalid said, “In contrast, China played a long game (with the US): it chose dialogue around drama and chose principles over provocation.”
China’s rise and growth control over the Web3 economy was similarly characterized by a carefully tuned, flexible liquidity control structure through Hong Kong’s parallel hedges. We consider this level of control and reveal the subtle and critical impacts that Beijing can exercise, coupled with Trump’s dependence on digital assets for unprecedented wealth.
The Trump Family’s Cryptocurrency Surge in Climate Wealth
US President Donald Trump attacked Bitcoin (BTC) in his first presidency, saying it was “not money” and “based on a thin air.” This position had a clear U-turn by 2025.
In a Fox News interview with Donald Trump Jr., he revealed that his family had “no choice” but would go into the code after the bank refused to do business with them after “nonsense” on January 6th. As a politically exposed person (PEP), this was a turnaround.
Banks and financial institutions are usually more stringent when dealing with PEPS. This is because their prominent positions are usually targeted for bribery and corruption, meaning they are at a high risk of entanglement in financial crimes through illegal money laundering.
Since plunging into encryption, the Trump family has shifted dramatically in favour of cryptography as a single engine of personal wealth. In July, it was reported that the Trump family’s crypto ventures controlled the portfolio, accounting for 40% of their $2.9 billion net worth.
These ventures include World Liberty Financial, which successfully raised hundreds of millions of dollars through sales of tokens, including Trump and Melania memo coins. Eric Trump’s involvement in America’s Bitcoin has further amplified family’s exposure to code.
This code exposure is unprecedented for political families in the United States, if not global. It concentrates wealth even more on the asset class known for its excessive volatility, and is now an industry intertwined with Hong Kong’s approved exchange, an exchange that is at the epicenter of China’s crypto liquidity strategy.
This environment brings increased financial risk, but at the same time empowers China with its important levers.
China’s Crypto-Liquidity Strategy
China’s announcement to liquidate virtual assets seized via Hong Kong’s licensed exchange is a central strategic move in Beijing’s global crypto ambition, not law enforcement housekeepers. Coupled with Leap Digital Assets Policy 2.0, this liquidity injection plan aims to transform Hong Kong into a dominant virtual asset hub that China can use as a market price vehicle.
Related: China’s Crypto liquidation plan reveals its grand strategy
“National Team” is a term well known in the financial world of Hong Kong (and the larger Asia). It is made up of sovereign wealth funds and other state-backed entities, and is reportedly well over $1 trillion in assets. The national team, first formed in response to the market conflict in 2015, was praised for pouring $17 billion into the market, reducing risk by 30%-45% during intervention.
Fast forward to 2025, the national team is proof that China’s plan to liquidate seized codes is not merely “off-road” action. Instead, entities like the National Team can control the market demand and demand to settle, control the market demand and demand, and to stabilize, expand, or deflate as Beijing’s wish.
China’s grand strategy is dynamic and flexible. This contrasts with the US, which maintains a passive HODL-only reserve policy, with the flexibility to affect liquidity and effectively respond to price volatility.
To this end, China is one of the few countries with a unique combination of large liquidity pools operating outside the mainland, including Hong Kong’s sovereign wealth funds, and national teams operating outside the mainland, including standbys of over $1 trillion.
This dual ability gives China a prominent tool to control its valuation and allows prices to rise, fall or stabilize at Beijing’s discretion. Considering the rise in businesses and countries following the Bitcoin financial strategy, Beijing will have an unprecedented impact on such businesses and countries.
Through Hong Kong, China has created keys to solidifying the Trump family’s legacy, either to smash the wealth of his family on the moon or to turn him into a bee food if he cheated.
US policy softens against China while putting pressure on others
Simultaneous management of multiple stages of China’s virtual asset market value chain allows Beijing to efficiently manage supply and demand (where cryptos depend on their valuation) and pricing dynamics can be priced all at once, effectively directing the crypto market (as its preferred style) rather than just participants.
For example, the Trump administration’s strict stance on India to import Russian oil is in contrast to its generosity towards China, a much larger importer of Russia’s energy, as many reporters have pointed out.
Selective pressure reveals greater geopolitical leverage in China. This, on the surface, looks like everything about rare earth, but could include deep, financial upsets against politically connected actors such as the Trump family.
Eric Trump’s homage to the upcoming Hong Kong crypto conferences represent this code’s Nexus. His participation underscores how strictly the financial and political wealth of the first family is sewn into the structure of China’s strategic crypto market.
Opinion: Joshua Chu, co-chair of Hong Kong Web3 Association.
This article is for general informational purposes and is not intended to be considered legal or investment advice, and should not be done. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or express Cointregraph’s views and opinions.
