Donald Trump has endorsed a new cryptocurrency business as the Republican presidential nominee courts the backing of wealthy crypto donors in a funding race with Kamala Harris.

Hours after an apparent attempt on his life on Monday, the former president and his sons Donald Jr and Eric revealed World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency project which Mr Trump has said would “leave slow and outdated big banks behind”.

Few details were disclosed about the mechanics of the scheme. It will include a cryptocurrency token for sale to the public and the founding team will keep some in compensation.

Mr Trump has performed an about-turn on cryptocurrency, enthusiastically embracing the controversial technology after previously warning that Bitcoin represented a “scam against the dollar”.

Having signalled a willingness to loosen digital currency rules, Mr Trump has enjoyed vocal support from a handful of influential Silicon Valley investors, including Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen, both billionaire venture capitalists.

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, cryptocurrency entrepreneurs, announced they would donate $1m (£756,000) to the Republican’s campaign amid anger from the industry over what they said was heavy-handed treatment under the Biden administration.

Mr Trump’s election manifesto, adopted in July by the Republican Party, has promised to “end Democrats’ unlawful and un-American crypto crackdown” and pledged to “defend the right to mine Bitcoin”.

JD Vance, the vice-presidential candidate, has also spoken out in favour of the cryptocurrency industry and holds around $250,000 in digital coins.

The former president has been racing to raise funds after a surge in donations to his rival, Ms Harris.

The Democratic nominee has raised more than $500m for her campaign since replacing President Biden with the backing of wealthy Hollywood celebrities, as well as hundreds of thousands of individuals.

Mr Trump spoke little about the plans for World Liberty Financial during an interview on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday, adding his children, including his youngest son Barron, had shown “great judgement” on the technology.

“I think my children opened my eyes more than anything else,” he said. “Barron’s a young guy, but he knows it. He talks about his wallet, he’s got four wallets or something ... he knows this stuff inside and out.”

The project also has the backing of Steve Witkoff, the real estate investor who was playing golf with Mr Trump on Sunday in Palm Beach, Florida, when a gunman armed with a semi-automatic rifle was caught by Secret Service agents.

In the run up to the announcement of the cryptocurrency, Donald Jr urged supporters in a post on X to “beware of fake tokens claiming to be part of the Trump project”.

Mr Trump has previously raked in more than $7m in funds from a “non-fungible token” project, which included selling digital collectibles to his fanbase. These included digital mugshots and Trump-themed trading cards. He has also launched a line of crypto-themed trainers.

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