Trump Unveils World Liberty Financial – Mostly
- Donald Trump officially unveiled World Liberty Financial (WLF), announcing that the US SEC would regulate the $WLFI token.
- His speech noted the influence of NFTs on Trump's interest in digital assets and the importance of family and friends in shaping his crypto perspective.
- Trump's political vision focuses on making the US a global cryptocurrency leader.
- Despite the fanfare, Trump's speech gave away few details, instead focusing on political issues.
Not even a second assassination attempt could stop Donald Trump from a planned livestream covering the launch of the new World Liberty Financial project.
However, not even the livestream could tempt Donald Trump into revealing many details. Is WLF the SEC-approved crypto project America (and the world) needs?
Or is this Trump University 2.0?Time to take a closer look.
A Crypto Speech With Very Little CryptoDonald Trump'spivot from crypto critic to crypto promoter is well-documented. However, the slow leak of plans regarding the World Liberty Financial (WLF) projectand its upcoming token ($WLFI) is raising significant attention.
The announcement speech took a while to get going - Trump spoke for over 15 minutes before even mentioning the word crypto.'Trump himself went on to say little about the project, leaving it to other members of the team to fill in the gaps instead. While Trump was comparatively silent, Zak Folkman did give some info in a pre-written (but unreleased) comment.
Here's what we know:
- WLF will be a borrowing and lending platform (DeFi).
- There will be a governance token, $WLFI.
- Tokens will only be available for accredited investors under Regulations D and S.
Besides that, there's still precious little info, so we can't draw any relevant conclusions now.
Why WLFI, Why Now?We don't know what the proposed platform is supposed to do exactly. There's been talk of a stablecoin, but whether that would be the $WLFI token or something different is unclear.The team has already made some adjustments to their plans. Coverage of a leaked whitepaper hinted at a token distribution that reserved 70% for the founders, project team and service providers, a shockingly high percentage.
Ethereum ($ETH), for instance, allocated only 16.6% of its total supply to the team, while Cardano's insiders kept 20% of $ADA tokens.
While complaining about the supposed fake news media,' the WLF team carefully noted yesterday that the token distribution would reserve 63% for public sale.
The percentages don't completely add up - but that could be largely down to incomplete information. So far, all we have to go off is the early draft whitepaper obtained by CoinDesk and the bits of info released yesterday.
Adjusting token distribution ahead of public launch is nothing new. Doing so in apparent response to criticism (and even before other details have been announced) is more than a little suspicious.
In the meantime, the WLF team - and Donald Trump -speak loudly of decentralization and bringing DeFi to a broader audience.
So far, the project's standout feature is itsregulation under the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), distinguishing it from many other cryptocurrencies that operate outside regulatory frameworks.
But restricting token sales to registered investors and bringing the SEC in from the very beginning somehowseems like more centralization to us.
Will WLF be Trump University 2.0?Trump is a politician first, crypto investor a distant second.
Most of his address yesterday focused on typical talking points - his opponent, Kamala Harris; the assassination attempts - rather than anything crypto-related.
Trump credits NFTs for piquing his crypto interest and continues to market (very profitable) NFT collections of his own.
He envisions the US as a global leader in cryptocurrency, with World Liberty Financial playing a pivotal role. However, WLFI faces challenges in a crowded market dominated by established tokens.
It all raises the question of how serious Trump actually is about WLF and $WLFI - and whether the project risks sharing the same fate as Trump University.
ReferencesClick to expand and view references
- Donald Trump Silent on World Liberty Financial (Cointelegraph)
- 70% of World Liberty Financial's Token Are Reserved (Cryptopotato)
- Trump Is Hawking Tokens For a Project He Still Hasn't Explained (TheVerge)
- World Liberty Financial X Account (X)
- In Trump-Backed Crypto Project, Founders Are Poised (CoinDesk)
- World Liberty Financial Whitepaper Leaked (Brave New Coin)
- Private Placements under Regulation D (SEC)
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