Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization and son of US President Donald Trump, has delivered a warning to global banks regarding cryptocurrency adoption.

Banks around the world will have to adopt cryptocurrency or go extinct in a decade, Trump predicted in an interview with CNBC’s Dan Murphy in Dubai on April 30.

“The modern financial system is broken, it’s slow, it’s expensive,” the businessman said, adding that the existing banking system “favors the ultra-wealthy.”

“It forced me into the crypto world,” he continued, adding: “And I’m telling you, if the banks don’t watch what’s coming, they’re going to be extinct in 10 years.”

SWIFT is an “absolute disaster”

While emphasizing the need for banks to closely monitor developments in the crypto industry, Trump highlighted the benefits of cryptocurrency’s underlying blockchain technology for the financial system.

He slammed the existing cross-border transaction solutions like the global international messaging network SWIFT, which has often been criticized for its slow transactions.

“There’s nothing that can be done on blockchain that can’t be done better than the way that the current financial institutions are working. SWIFT is an absolute disaster,” he stated.

With the emergence of crypto, traditional payment tools like SWIFT are at risk of losing market share to decentralized alternatives, Trump said:

“You can open up a DeFi [decentralized finance] app right now, you can open up any cryptocurrency app, and you can send money, wallet to wallet, instantaneously, without the expense, without the variability.”

Banks pushing back, but the industry is bullish

Trump’s warning comes amid many global banks still pushing back against cryptocurrency adoption, with the Bank of Italy slamming stablecoin growth and Bitcoin (BTC) investments.

On the other hand, many industry executives are bullish on crypto adoption by banks already in 2025, amid governments like the US pushing a more crypto-friendly agenda.

Trump’s new prediction comes in line with his previous bold forecasts on crypto. In December 2024, Eric Trump predicted that Bitcoin would inevitably hit $1 million per coin, while global governments and institutions would have to adopt the cryptocurrency to compete in the fast-growing market.

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