Last week, President Donald Trump held the inaugural meeting of what he calls the “Board of Peace,” a group ostensibly tasked with rebuilding Gaza after years of bombardment by Israel. One of the things this new board is supposed to undertake is restoring some sense of normalcy to how everyday Gazans pay for things, which may include a new stablecoin for the territory, according to a report from the Financial Times.
The potential stablecoin is still in a “preliminary stage” according to the Financial Times, and it’s not clear whether the cryptocurrency will be something that already exists or a new coin dedicated to the region. It follows news late last year that Trump’s government was thinking about building “AI-powered, smart cities” in Gaza that might include the transfer of a “digital token” to Palestinians for development of their land, according to the Washington Post.
The Financial Times spoke with five people who are “familiar with the discussions” about the stablecoin, and one of the unnamed sources insisted, “This will not be a ‘Gaza Coin’ or a new Palestinian currency, but a means to allow Gazans to transact digitally.”
If Trump’s group did decide to promote an existing coin, there are some obvious choices that would be at the front of the pack. The most popular stablecoin in the world is Tether, which has deep connections to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, whose firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, holds a 5% stake in the company. Lutnick has divested, but his sons, Brandon and Kyle Lutnick, now run the firm.
There’s also World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin, USD1, which is essentially the official stablecoin of the Trump family. World Liberty Financial was co-founded by President Trump’s sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric. USD1 is supposed to be pegged to the U.S. dollar but depegged on Monday, slipping to $0.994 before recovering. The company claimed in a post on X that the accounts of several co-founders were hacked and “paid influencers” were spreading “FUD,” which stands for fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
The official currency in Gaza is the shekel, which has been in increasingly short supply in its physical form ever since the start of the war on Oct. 7, 2023, when Israel started blocking shekels from entering the territory. The Palestine Monetary Authority oversees the currency in Gaza but has no power to issue shekels or anything else. Even though banks started to reopen late last year, most struggle to find any cash.
Digital currency comes with its own challenges, given the devastation of the territory’s telecom infrastructure over recent years. Gazans have to endure slow and unreliable 2G connections, another choice made by the Israeli government to harm the population of 2 million people. Israel says it only wants to harm Hamas with such limitations.
The work of possibly introducing a stablecoin to Gaza is being led by tech entrepreneur and Israeli Cyber Command co-founder Liran Tancman, according to the Financial Times, who also helped co-found the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The GHF was an aid group heavily criticized for being run by U.S. and Israeli interests. Hundreds of Palestinians died while trying to get food from GHF sites before the organization was shut down.
Tancman, who previously worked as an Israeli intelligence officer, talked last week about the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), working under the Board of Peace, and its plans for modernizing Gaza’s internet infrastructure.
“The NCAG is building a secure digital backbone, an open platform, enabling e-payments, financial services, e-learning, and healthcare with user control over data,” said Tancman.
Tancman insists the 2G phone system will get an upgrade by July to “free, high-speed access to essential services” and claimed they were working on a new system for streamlining deliveries, invoking Amazon’s name in the process.
“We’re advancing an Amazon-like logistics system to help Palestinians launch businesses, import globally and trade securely. This will lower prices, drive growth, and help transform Gaza into an open, transparent, corruption-free economic zone,” said Tancman.
President Trump appointed himself chair of the Board of Peace, which held its first public meeting on Feb. 19. The most prominent participants at the Board of Peace meeting were people from countries who might be described as America’s new allies. Ever since World War II, the liberal democracies of Europe and North America have been the closest allies of the U.S., but Trump has essentially inverted the world order, cozying up more to authoritarians and aspiring dictators. Traditional European allies like France attended without making a commitment to join.
European coverage of the meeting was largely skeptical that Trump would be able to accomplish anything to help the people of Gaza. As France24 so accurately put it:
In a rambling speech, Trump denounced domestic opponents, highlighted stock market gains, denied homosexual leanings and endorsed the political fortunes of several world leaders on stage, including populists Viktor Orban of Hungary and Javier Milei of Argentina.
Trump announced at the meeting that the U.S. will contribute $10 billion to the board, though no such money has been appropriated by Congress. Like so many things that Trump says, it’s unclear whether it will actually happen. And if it does, it’s unclear whether it will be legal in any way. Only Congress has the power to allocate money for such a project, but the president often finds creative (and illegal) ways to get around that.
Trump has veto power over the new Board of Peace and will apparently remain the chair even if he leaves office, which he’s scheduled to do on Jan. 20, 2029. The president is supposed to be constrained by term limits, which state that he can’t serve more than 8 years in total. But he’s frequently mentioned serving another term, something he sometimes characterizes as a joke. Anyone who’s watched this lawless regime operate knows he’s not joking.
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