WLFI Token Sale Supported by Trump Family Struggles to Hit $300M Target

Sentiment Status: Neutral

The WLFI governance token grants holders decision-making power but is non-transferable for 12 months, limiting short-term liquidity.

The anticipated World Liberty Financial (WLFI) token sale, backed by Donald Trump and his family, raised $12 million within the first 24 hours of launch. However, the sale fell far short of its ambitious $300 million target, selling only 4% of its distributed tokens. 

World Liberty Financial, the organization behind the WLFI token, aimed to raise $300 million through the sale, with a diluted valuation of $1.5 billion. Tokens were sold to accredited U.S. investors and non-U.S. participants at $0.015 each. However, after 24 hours, only $11.9 million were raised, with 96% of the public sale tokens still available.

The turnout stands in contrast to the 100,000 users whitelisted for the event. Some have speculated that the technical difficulties experienced by the platform during the sale may have delayed participation.

Shortly after the token sale began on October 15, the WLF website crashed due to heavy traffic. These technical issues, which included multiple outages, frustrated potential investors and may have contributed to the lower-than-expected initial sales.

Sandy Peng, co-founder of Scroll, which is hosting WLF’s blockchain application, confirmed that the platform received over 72 million visits within its first hour, overwhelming the site. 

The WLFI token, designed as a governance token, will allow holders to participate in the decision-making of the company. However, the tokens are non-transferable for 12 months, limiting their liquidity in the short term. In addition, wallets are capped at holding no more than 5% of the total supply for governance voting, according to the project's whitepaper.

Furthermore, Donald Trump is named the “Chief Crypto Advocate,” while his sons, Eric, Barron, and Donald Trump Jr., serve as “Web3 Ambassadors.” Despite the high-profile backing, World Liberty Financial is not structured as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO); instead, it operates as a Delaware non-stock corporation with a board of directors.

World Liberty Financial plans to expand its DeFi operations, with a key focus on launching an iteration of Aave v3. The organization submitted a governance proposal to Aave, seeking approval to deploy its version of Aave on Ethereum. If approved, the platform will support lending and borrowing in stablecoins like USDC and USDT,  and other assets like Ether and Wrapped Bitcoin.

Though the WLFI token sale has underperformed, WLF's plans to integrate with Aave gained positive feedback in the community. Mark Cuban, a well-known billionaire investor, expressed cautious interest in the project, remarking that it would be “fun to watch.”