Donald Trump to Launch DeFi Platform Ahead of US Presidential Election & Amidst Backlash

• The Trump family will debuta DeFi platform called World Liberty Financial on September 16, 50 days before the 2024 US Presidential Election.
• World Liberty Financial ispoised to simplify crypto transactions and roll out a governance token and dollar-pegged stablecoin.
• Trump has faced backlash over naively capitalizing on cryptoand the platform being another scam.'

Donald Trump's family-run DeFi platform, World Liberty Financial, is kicking off on September 16.

Taking the venture's reins are his two sons, Eric Trump and Donald Jr - both of whom are on a mission to leave the outdated big banks behind,' just like their father.

Considering the2024 US Presidential Election is just around the corner (November 5), this is a bold move for the Trump kin to make.

Does the platform even bring something new to the table? Let's see.

Trump's Blueprint for US to Become the Crypto Capital of the Planet'

As part of Trump's plan to make the US the crypto capital of the planet,' the DeFi platform is designed to simplify buying and lending crypto assets.

.@worldlibertyfi pic.twitter.com/mwhVIzPJyq

- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 29, 2024

Platform users will be able to store funds digitally, invest in various digital assets (including crypto), and manage credit accounts.

A defining feature is a proposed nontransferable governance token poised to give users a say in World Liberty Financial's future trajectory.

Another aspect isa potential USD-pegged stablecoin, as teased in an X post on September 5.

There are also indications of a potential collaboration with Aave(a non-custodial open-source protocol for lending and borrowing assets). Should this materialize, World Liberty Financial will likely be Ethereum-based.

Trump turning to Ethereum wouldn't come as a surprise. The blockchain dominates the DeFi arena, taking up 55.87% of the total value locked (TVL) across all other networks.

Trump's DeFi Debut is Just 50 Days Before US Presidential ElectionThe timing of World Liberty Financial's debut is just 50 days ahead of the US 2024 Presidential Election, in which Trump will vie against Kamala Harris for the presidential seat.

To date, the presidential race is extremely tight. Per Polymarket data (the world's largest prediction market), Kamala Harris is leading with 50% of votes, while Donald Trump trails ever so slightly behind with 49%.

The platform may be the reason Trump has fallen behind Harris. It lacks support from both those who typically support Trump and those who never have and likely never will.

Nic Carter (a Trump supporter and partner of Castle Island Ventures) has announced the project is a huge mistake' and accused the former US president of naively capitalizing on crypto.

It looks like Trump's inner circle is just cashing in on his recent embrace of crypto in a kind of naive way, and frankly it looks like they're burning a lot of the good will that's been built with the industry so far.Politico

Austin Campbell (a professor at NYU's Stern School of Business) also suggested that Trump is using a vulnerable, old tactic whereby crypto operations promise the world before properly disclosing legitimate details. According to him, this makes them susceptible to all sorts of nonsense.'

Many users have also taken to X to call the venture another scam,' likely referring to his NFT projects (the latest one rapidly garnered $2M in sales) being untrustworthy.

Still, World Liberty Financial has announced that it has proven strategies to protect users from scams and threats. This comes after an announcement that Alexei Dulub (the founder of Web3 Antivirus and PixelPlex) has joined the team.

Verdict - World Liberty Financial Might Not Be Anything New

Judging from what's been unveiled about Donald Trump's family-run DeFi project, it might not introduce any unique use cases to the crypto realm.

Crypto users canalready buy, trade, and sell crypto assets on crypto exchanges like Coinbase and Binance. In addition, the DeFi platform Uniswap launched a governance token four years ago, in September 2020.

Many Web3 projects have governance tokens, including Aave, Decentraland, and MakerDAO.

Dollar-backed stablecoins are equally familiar, already constituting 94% of the total stablecoin market cap. As are DeFi platforms being held on the Ethereum blockchain.

All things considered, does Trump's DeFi platform bring anything new? Or, is it just another attempt to get those crypto votes?

Nonetheless, it's clear that the former president has done his due diligence over what's hot and what's not in the crypto space.

Only time will tell if World Liberty Financial has any distinct selling pointsand whether it will hinder or boost Trump's chances of regaining the US presidential seat.

References

Click to expand and view sources

• Donald Trump's Twitter Account (X)
• Total Value Locked All Chains (DeFi Llama)
• World Liberty Financial's Twitter Account (X)
• Presidential Election Winner 2024 (Polymarket)
• A huge mistake': Trump's crypto allies cringe over family's startup (Politico)
• Natoshi Sakamoto's Twitter Account (X)
• Uniswap Launches Governance Token in Bid to Keep Up With Rival AMM SushiSwap (CoinDesk)
• State of Stablecoins: 2024 (CoinDesk)

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