In an ambitious foray into the cryptocurrency space, former President Donald Trump’s venture, World Liberty Financial, launched its highly-anticipated token sale on Tuesday, but the excitement was met with an unexpected hurdle as the company’s website crashed shortly after going live. This significant event transpired only hours after the public token sale was opened, leading to speculation about the level of interest surrounding the project.
The whitelist for World Liberty Financial’s WLFI token, which targets accredited investors and non-U.S. persons, had opened previously on September 30. According to co-founder Zach Folkman, the pre-launch hype had amassed over 100,000 sign-ups from potential investors eager to participate in the purchase of tokens, as reported by CNBC. As of the latest updates, the website had recovered from the initial disturbance, but questions linger regarding the logistical preparations in place for such an influx of traffic and interest.
Blockchain data from Etherscan indicates that only 5,317 unique wallet addresses had successfully acquired WLFI tokens by Tuesday afternoon. This contrasts sharply with the more than 532 million tokens that World Liberty Financial claims were sold from an overall public offering of 20 billion tokens. Sandy Peng, an advisor to the WLFI venture, attributed the website outages to unforeseen levels of user engagement, revealing that the site experienced an astonishing 72 million unique visits within the first hour post-launch.
The WLFI token is designed to serve a governance role within the World Liberty Financial platform, allowing holders to vote on critical decisions including protocol upgrades and security risk management. Currently, the tokens are non-transferrable, a limitation that has raised eyebrows among critics who argue that this may alienate potential investors who seek liquidity. The broader objectives of the project include enabling users to borrow and lend cryptocurrency, promoting financial inclusion within decentralized finance.
Despite the project being touted by Trump and his team as a means to assist those who are unbanked or de-banked, there are significant restrictions on who can actually purchase WLFI tokens. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) definitions, only accredited investors qualify to participate in the sale. To meet these criteria, individuals must possess an annual income of no less than $200,000 alone or $300,000 jointly with a spouse, or maintain a net worth of at least $1 million, excluding their primary residence.
On the day of the token sale, World Liberty Financial released a comprehensive document referred to as a “gold paper,” which notably designates Trump as the “chief crypto associate” while his sons—Eric, Donald Trump Jr., and Barron—are acknowledged as Web3 Ambassadors for the initiative. This familial involvement underscores the project’s connection to the Trump brand, a factor that many speculate will influence its reception among supporters and crypto enthusiasts alike.
The gold paper outlines ambitious plans for World Liberty Financial’s services, promising users up-to-date information and access to third-party decentralized finance applications, inclusive of digital wallet services for acquiring and managing stablecoins and other digital assets. However, the document also clarifies an important disclaimer: the tokens are not available for U.S. persons and have not undergone registration with any authority in the U.S. or elsewhere.
As the dust settles from the initial launch, observers are keen to see how World Liberty Financial will navigate this complex landscape. The interaction of politics and cryptocurrency has created a highly charged environment, and with both substantial enthusiasm and skepticism at play, the future of WLFI will be an area of keen interest in the evolving world of digital finance.