Farokh Sarmad | Trump’s favorite crypto guru is from Quebec

The Trump family has chosen a 30-year-old Montreal influencer to announce the creation of World Liberty Financial, Donald Trump’s first official foray into the Wild West of cryptocurrencies. This “little guy from Montreal” is pretty proud of his move.

Last Sunday, Farokh Sarmad had barely arrived with his team at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida mansion, when Secret Service agents ordered them to urgently move their vehicle.

Tensions were high. A few miles away, the former president had just avoided a second assassination attempt, thanks to the vigilance of an agent who had spotted the alleged shooter on the edge of the Trump International Golf Course.

The young Montreal cryptocurrency guru, head of Rug Radio, a social media content creation agency, immediately understood that his interview with Trump, scheduled to air live on X the following evening, was going to become “the most anticipated interview in the world.”

He wasn’t wrong. With nearly three million live streams on X, and clips of it replayed on CNN, Fox News, the BBC and countless mainstream media outlets, the 30-minute interview nearly broke the internet. Speaking about the attack for the first time, the former president joked that he “wished he could just stop [s]on last roll” before being evacuated from the golf course.

The Republican leader also blamed the incident on “the rhetoric of the radical left.”

But the interview with the Montreal influencer was intended to announce the launch of World Liberty Financial, a kind of cryptocurrency lending and borrowing platform linked to the Trump Organization, which promises to provide access to loans to millions of Americans excluded from the traditional banking system.

The former president has already declared that he is “not a fan” of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (a “scam against the dollar” and a “disaster in the making,” he said in 2021). But his sons, Donald Trump Jr., Eric and Barron, have “opened the eyes” of the billionaire to the strategic importance of cryptocurrencies, he explained to the Quebec interviewer.

“If we don’t do it, China will do it,” Trump predicted, without giving any details about how his new venture would work.

Ferrari, Rolex and private jets

It was the Trump family who called Farokh Sarmad last August to offer him the interview at Mar-a-Lago to launch World Liberty Financial. “They chose me because we have a good reputation in the industry” of cryptocurrencies, estimates the charismatic entrepreneur, whose personal profile on X has 415,000 subscribers.

Aged 30, this “little guy from Montreal”, born in Paris to parents of Iranian origin, abandoned his law studies at the University of Montreal and UQAM after launching his first company, Mr. Goodlife (which became Goodlife Media & Communication Inc.), at the age of 21.

The young man first became known for his Instagram account, which presents his 3.2 million subscribers with photos of Ferraris, Rolexes, private jets and other luxury yachts.

His many other accounts, dedicated to travel and lifestyle jet sethave also garnered tens of millions of Instagram followers…and lots of ad revenue.

In 2017, the magazine Forbes ranked Mr. Sarmad at 12^e rank in the top 15 influencers to follow on Instagram.

“It was just a phase in my life,” says Farokh Sarmad, of his passion for luxury items and the spread of a glamorous lifestyle.

He has since “fallen in love” with the world of cryptocurrencies. His content creation agency, Rug Radio, launched in 2022, brings together around a hundred influencers specializing in all subjects related to the “blockchain”, non-fungible tokens, as well as cryptocurrencies. “Our only income comes from our sponsors. We work with the biggest brands in crypto, but we have also worked with Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Lacoste, BMW, Mercedes-Benz,” he lists.

While Donald Trump’s taste for ostentatious luxury is no stranger to Farokh Sarmad’s media universe, the Montrealer’s influence in the world of cryptocurrencies remains enviable. The daily show he hosts on X from his apartment in Old Montreal regularly reaches more than 10,000 subscribers, not insignificant results for such a specific subject. The show is sponsored by Rollbit, a virtual casino whose bets and payouts are made entirely in cryptocurrencies.

For him, Monday’s interview was nothing more than a way to introduce cryptocurrencies to a more general audience.

A “smoke show”

Three cryptocurrency experts consulted by The Press However, they have serious doubts about the seriousness of launching World Liberty Financial in the middle of the presidential campaign, when the exchange platform promised by the Trump family is not even functional.

Martin Lalonde, portfolio manager of the Rivemont Crypto Fund, sees it as an exercise above all “electoralist and ideological” aimed at a libertarian base. “Donald Trump does not understand what cryptocurrencies are, but he understands that they interest people on X. He is trying to reach poorly educated white Americans who are angry with the system. This is the profile of a very large proportion of people interested in crypto,” he comments.

“It’s all smoke and mirrors to attract attention and show [que Donald Trump] “is interested in this sector,” believes Louis Roy, president of Catallaxy, the subsidiary of Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton specializing in cryptocurrencies.

The technology announced on Monday already exists on the market, Mr. Roy also emphasizes.

“This crypto is a smoke show,” says Mélissa Fortin, a professor in the accounting department at UQAM and a specialist in cryptocurrencies. According to her, Donald Trump’s project aims to “restore his image” and reach a “new group of more tech-savvy voters,” but brings “nothing new” from a technological point of view.

Farokh Sarmad rejects this analysis. “The message that remained from this interview is that the cryptocurrency industry is a sector attacked from all sides [par les gouvernements]and that there, we potentially have the 47^e President of the United States who is interested in it. Wow!” he rejoices.

He would do the same interview “anytime” with Kamala Harris or even Justin Trudeau, because he “dreams of making them understand” that “cryptoentrepreneurs are not criminals.”

“I’m not at war with the financial system,” insists Farokh Sarmad. “But you know, I can’t even buy a condo because I have to convert my bitcoins into dollars six months before the purchase to prove that I’m not a thief. Is that fair? I don’t think so. However, I pay taxes like any good Quebec citizen and I’m very proud to be in Canada. I wish Justin Trudeau would understand that.”