Trump's WLF: Triumph or Fiasco? ⚠️
World Liberty Financial is Trump family's grand crypto project. Timing is muddled. Execution could determine not only Trump's political future but also the direction of America's crypto landscape.
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It’s here folks. Donald Trump’s grand crypto scheme - World Liberty Financial (WLF).
Love him. Love him not.
Trump loves crypto.
In so many ways.
He has released NFTs. Launched memecoins. Now a DeFi project that will liberate the world from the outdated finance system.
He called it a “scam” when President, but not anymore.
Now he gives you hope. Crypto is his trump card.
It’s not him alone » + Donald Jr + Eric + Barron.
He has been making countless promises throughout his 2024 election campaign.
Read: Hello Bitcoiners
Roping in crypto figures like him.
JD Vance, his running mate. Likes crypto. Don’t like Gary Gensler.
Read: Who is JD Vance?
But the best one yet - a crypto DeFi project led by Trump’s sons.
What is the project? Not much we know. The key words are: decentralisation, stablecoins, and US dollar. Read from the team itself?
We are discussing the good, the weird and the bad side of WLF, initially called "The DeFiant Ones."
We have a launch date: September 16 and 20:00 EST.
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The good: What to like?
1/Way to go mainstream
Donald Trump, the ex-president of the US, and the now presidential candidate releasing a crypto project.
A great way for crypto and DeFi to go mainstream.
The involvement of the Trump family may attract attention and investment, particularly from supporters of Donald Trump.
A unique positioning within the political landscape, potentially drawing in a demographic that is interested in both cryptocurrency and the Trump brand.
Read: Trump’s Bizarre Crypto Cash-in Is Actually Perfectly on Brand
2/Decentralisation focus
The idea: “Make crypto and America great by driving the mass adoption of stablecoins and decentralised finance.”
Encourage the dominance of the US dollar in DeFi by focusing on US dollar stablecoins.
Investment focus? Will connect users to decentralised finance tools for secure, high-yield crypto investments, inviting users to join the financial revolution.
A trademark for World Liberty Financial was filed in mid-July, indicating a connection to DeFi.
3/ Planned token sale
The project features a governance token WLFI, for users to participate in decision - making processes within the platform.
Major token sale ahead of the 2024 US presidential election, potentially raising several hundred million dollars.
A draft whitepaper shows 70% of non-transferable WLFI tokens go to insiders, leaving only 30% for public sale, valuing the sale at $1.8 billion.
If successful, this could generate $537 million.
4/ The Trump team members?
The whitepaper specifies that while the platform is not owned, managed, operated, or sold by Trump, he and other members of his family may still receive compensation from it.
Barron Trump: The youngest son of Donald Trump is described as a "DeFi visionary" and is reportedly involved as a financier and influencer within the project.
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump - the elder sons are heavily involved in promoting and shaping the vision of WLF.
Read: Trump’s Idiot Sons’ Crypto Scheme Is a “Huge Mistake”
5/ The security team
World Liberty Financial clarifies it is not a "hostile fork" of Aave but rather a collaborative partnership to push DeFi forward with security checks.
The weird: What to suspect
1/ The hacks and scams
Scammers created fraudulent advertisements on Telegram.
Claimed to be associated with WLF.
These ads promised users free crypto, with offers reaching up to $15,000.
Tempting of course.
To receive these funds, users were instructed to connect their crypto wallets, which would expose their assets to theft.
Despite warnings from the official WLF Telegram channel about these fraudulent offers, the ads remained visible for several days.
The accounts of Tiffany Trump and Lara Trump were also hacked, and these breaches were utilised to promote a fraudulent governance token purportedly linked to WLF.
2/ Dough connection
The Aave-based project has sparked controversy over its token allocation and ties to the recently hacked Dough Finance.
The WLF team includes four names.
Zachary Folkman
Head of Operations at World Liberty Financial
Co-creator of Subify, a competitor to Patreon and OnlyFans
A past tied to Dough Finance.
A limited liability corporation for World Liberty Financial is registered to Folkman.
Previously registered a company called Date Hotter Girls LLC and taught masterclasses on how to ‘Become the Ultimate Alpha Male.’
Are we taking him seriously? Trump’s team is.
Chase Herro
Data and Strategies Lead at World Liberty Financial
Co-creator of Subify with Folkman
Previously listed Dough Finance's Telegram group in his bio on the messaging app
Octavian Lojnita
Smart Contracts Lead at World Liberty Financial
Also previously worked on Dough Finance, according to his online resume
Boga
Pseudonymous Front-end Developer at World Liberty Financial
Listed as an author (0xboga) in Dough Finance's source code
Dough Finance?
A DeFi platform that was hacked for $2 million in July 2024.
The World Liberty Financial whitepaper and deleted GitHub codebase show the project initially lifted code directly from the hacked Dough Finance platform.
Read: Inside the Trump Crypto Project Linked to a $2M DeFi Hack
That’s concerning?
The bad: What to be worried about
1/Token allocation model
WLF aims to raise $540 million by selling 30% of its WLFI tokens.
70% of WLFI tokens, valued at approximately $540 million, are allocated to insiders, including Trump’s close family members.
And that worries the crypto community.
Why? 70% for insiders is significantly higher than other projects like Ethereum (16.6%) and Cardano (20%).
The ethos of blockchain and DeFi? Decentralisation. Allocating a big majority of tokens to insiders directly contradicts this principle.
It’s a highly centralised governance model and decisions might favour those with the most tokens rather than the broader community.
2/The crypto reputation dilemma
All those who love Trump, do not necessarily love WLF.
Trump's allies in the crypto industry are a bit concerned about the project.
A political liability they think.
Read: Trump’s crypto allies cringe over family’s startup: ‘A huge mistake’
Nic Carter, a crypto-loving Trump supporter, is waving a big red flag, calling this a “huge mistake.”
“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.”
The main reason? The project has been a magnet for scams and hacking attempts.
“Maybe it doesn’t move the needle for most people, but if this thing is hacked or regular folks lose money on it or it opens up the door for the SEC to investigate the team, it only looks like it has downside risk,” Carter said. “It looks to have very little upside risk.”
Austin Campbell, an adjunct professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business.
“It’s a very typical playbook of smaller operators or more amateur operations in the crypto space to try to generate a lot of hype before revealing the details … That makes them susceptible to all sorts of nonsense.”
World Liberty representative Zak Folkman has a reply to all this.
World Liberty works with the top auditing firms and security specialists in the world ... We take security very seriously and put it first and foremost, above anything.
Read: Even Trump’s Crypto Allies Think His Sons’ New Startup Is a Stupid Idea
Good for them. But, crypto already has a bad reputation hacks and scams list complied by Web3 is going great.
Read: World Liberty Fiasco
Can you really warn enough or stop the man who wants to to make America the “crypto capital” of the planet. Guess not. There is no stopping here.
Token Dispatch view
The risky gambit of Trump's crypto venture.
With less than two months until Election Day, Donald Trump's crypto project launch raises questions about judgment and priorities.
Launching a personal business venture during a presidential run brings concerns about conflicts of interest that plagued Trump's previous term.
While Trump may argue that this move aligns with his vision of making America the "crypto capital of the world," the timing and execution are muddled with personal gain and public service.
One would expect a presidential candidate to be laser-focused on policy and voter outreach. Instead, Trump is diving headfirst into the volatile crypto market, a move that beds with opportunism and invites unnecessary scrutiny.
The project's association with a platform that has previously suffered a significant exploit, adds a layer of technical risk to the venture. Should World Liberty Financial face similar issues, the fallout could be catastrophic for Trump's campaign.
In the high-stakes arena of presidential politics, distractions can be deadly.
World Liberty Financial may prove to be more than just a distraction. If things go south, it can potentially alienate both traditional conservatives and the crypto community.
The implications of World Liberty Financial could determine not only Trump's political future but also the direction of America's cryptocurrency landscape.
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