Trump Declares 'Crypto Is the Future' as World Liberty Financial's WLFI Token Launch Nets $9 Million on Day One

SUMMARY

World Liberty Financial’s token sale raised $9 million on Tuesday, far short of its $300 million target.
The website faced multiple slowdowns and crashes during the public sale, with 610 million tokens sold.

Donald Trump, the U.S. Republican presidential candidate, promoted the launch of World Liberty Financial (WLFI) on X, encouraging participation after the token sale’s slow start. The public sale started Tuesday morning, but as of late evening, only $9 million worth of tokens were sold, accounting for 3% of the total tokens accessible. Technical issues on the project’s site caused delays, restricting early transactions despite noteworthy interest.

WLFI tokens work as governance tokens, permitting users to take part in platform decisions and DeFi activities such as lending and creating liquidity pools. The sale aims to raise $300 million by offering 20% of the token supply at a $1.5 billion valuation. However, these tokens will stay non-transferable for a year, restricting immediate trading. Trump’s sons—Donald Jr., Eric, and Barron—serve as web3 ambassadors, whereas co-founders Steve and Zach Witkoff, Chase Herro, and Zak Folkman lead the project.

Over 100,000 users enlisted on the whitelist before the launch, according to Folkman. The project raised $5 million in the first hour, but website outages disturbed additional buys all through the day. WLFI is expected to drive future developments, with integration on Ethereum planned.

Opinions on the project are mixed, with some addressing the impact of Trump’s association, while others see potential in its design. Trump framed the initiative as fundamental for driving the future digital economy, encouraging supporters to embrace crypto.

Bitcoin’s price has risen by 15% in October, driven somewhat by Trump’s improved election odds over Kamala Harris. Bernstein analysts highlighted that the crypto market’s recent strength correlates with Trump’s performance in election prediction markets, in spite of both candidates communicating support for digital resources.