Trump family DeFi project sells more than 1 billion tokens
It wasn't just in the election that Donald Trump rose to prominence. World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance (DeFi) project backed by the president-elect's family, sold more than a billion tokens at its launch.
According to official data, the project sold exactly 1.02 billion WLFI tokens, which yielded unrealized gains of US$1 million for the family. The token sale took place discreetly last month.
However, this description hides a small “failure” of World Liberty Financial: low demand. Investor interest in the project was very low, leading the company to reduce its fundraising target. Instead of the expected $300 million, the project put the final goal at just $30 million.
In total, the project raised US$15.3 million from pre-sales, a very small amount. With the appreciation of Ether (ETH), this number increased to US$16.25 million.
WLFI sale data
Etherscan shows that the token sale wallet has not liquidated any amounts. As a result, the project holds a sum of 4,234 ETH and US$4.2 million in stablecoins.
Ether is currently trading at $2,818, its highest level since August, following a market-wide rally that occurred as a result of Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election. On the first day of the token sale, the project raised $11 million.
The token's decentralization index, according to Etherscan, is currently at 2.12%. This indicates a high level of ownership concentration, something common for new tokens. But this rate did not decrease with pre-sales.
One of the main issues for World Liberty Financial is that the WLFI token is “non-transferable,” meaning investors cannot liquidate or trade it for profit. It is not yet known whether this lock is temporary or permanent.
This could change in the future in the event of a governance vote, although no timeline has been set. And the concentration of the token in a few hands can harm the project’s governance
Token sales have slowed recently, with just $364,000 worth of WLFI being sold since November 1st. Not even Trump's election managed to give new air to the protocol.
Because of these numbers, many people accuse World Liberty Financial of being a “scam”. The main accusation came from Anthony Scaramucci, founder and managing partner of Skybridge Capital, who was once an advisor to Donald Trump in his first term.