Presidential candidate, Donald Trump is all set to launch his own cryptocurrency, “World Liberty Financial” (WLFI) on Tuesday, October 15. The project is spearheaded by his sons Don Jr. and Eric Trump.
🦅🇺🇸 Big news! @WorldLibertyFi public sale starts Oct. 15th, open to everyone who qualifies through the whitelist. Join us for a Twitter Spaces on Oct. 14th at 8 AM EST to learn more. Stay tuned for updates!
— WLFI (@worldlibertyfi) October 11, 2024
World Liberty Financial token aims to offer services like crypto borrowing, lending, and investing through a decentralized platform and is available to KYC-compliant U.S. investors only. But even as Trump fans are excited about the project, with some of them seeing it as a mark for Trump’s genuine crypto interest, many others in the crypto community about the project’s transparency and decentralization.
Key figures like Dogecoin founder Billy Marcus have criticized the move saying it is not good for Trump’s presidential ambitions.
Secondly, the WLFI token is a governance token for holders to vote on proposals and control the project’s direction. But, 70% of the tokens are reserved for founders and service providers, leaving only 30% for public sale, raising concerns about ‘true decentralization’.
Phase one of the WLFI involves launching a DeFi lending platform on the Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) solution “Scroll,” which will support Bitcoin, Ether, and stablecoins. WLFI plans to include creating a stablecoin-focused credit card, integrating with exchanges for easier transactions, and fractionalizing ownership of real-world assets like hotels and clubs through the platform in the future. But concerns about its decentralization status quo still persists as there are not many details about the project.
Moreover, the leaders of the project- Zachary Folkman and Chase Hero, were previously involved in a DeFi platform called “Do Finance,” which faced a $2 million hack in July. The use of similar code in the current project raises security concerns aroung WLFI.
Even though Trump has been vocal about supporting cryptocurrency with promises such as firing SEC chairman Gary Gensler, appointing a crypto advisory council, and creating regulatory clarity for the industry, there are mixed reactions to his launch of WLFI.