Introduction to World Liberty Financial
Former president and Republican nominee Donald Trump has been involved with the crypto industry for months, speaking on the annual Bitcoin conference in Nashville and hinting at a brand new project on social media. On Monday night, he officially announced World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance initiative centered around a crypto token called WLFI, on a live Spaces on X.
Background on Trump’s Crypto Involvement
Trump’s interest in crypto began in 2022, when he debuted an NFT trading card collection that sold out inside a day, garnering nearly $5 million in sales. Although he had previously expressed skepticism about digital assets like Bitcoin, describing it as a "scam," the success of the NFTs looked as if it would soften his position. As crypto-focused Super PACs emerged as top campaign fundraisers in 2024, Trump courted blockchain entrepreneurs and even headlined the Bitcoin conference in Nashville in July.
The World Liberty Financial Project
The hints around World Liberty Financial began in August, when Trump and his sons posted a few latest crypto project on his social media platform Truth Social, targeting unbanked and underserved communities. They also launched a Telegram channel, with ties emerging between entrepreneurs with loose connections to crypto. More details emerged in Monday’s Spaces, though Trump himself did circuitously address the project during his temporary remarks. World Liberty Financial will include a governance token called WLFI, which shall be non-transferable and is not going to earn yield, making it an unattractive investment opportunity.
Concerns and Controversies
Moreover, the token will only be available to accredited investors, which seems contrary to the project’s apparent mission of helping the underserved obtain loans. By only making the token available to accredited investors, the project will likely qualify for a key SEC exemption that enables corporations to issue unregistered securities. The hosts of the X Space didn’t provide any specifics in regards to the launch of the project, though they did share more details on allocation, saying that 63% of the token could be sold to the general public, with just 20% going to the team.
Security and Conflict of Interest Concerns
As Coindesk previously reported, much of the language within the leaked white paper appears much like Dough Finance, one other DeFi app that was hacked over the summer. Security doesn’t remain the one concern for the Trump family’s crypto gamble, nonetheless. Just as Trump became enmeshed in other conflict-of-interest critiques during his first term in office related to his sprawling web of companies, the launch of a brand new crypto token could raise questions on people buying into the project to earn influence, or Trump pushing on regulators to greenlight his personal businesses.
Conclusion
For now, World Liberty Financial stays just one other sign that the blockchain industry is probably the most powerful aspects within the 2024 election. As Trump said on Monday, "Crypto’s just one among those things we now have to do, whether we prefer it or not." The project’s success and implications remain to be seen, nevertheless it is evident that Trump’s involvement within the crypto industry will proceed to be a subject of interest and controversy.
