Donald Trump Unveils World Liberty Financial

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump officially launched his cryptocurrency project, World Liberty Financial, on Monday night.

“We’re embracing the future with crypto and leaving the slow and outdated big banks behind,” said Trump in a promotional video.

In a live session hosted by crypto personality Farokh on X, Trump shared insights on how his NFT projects sparked his interest in cryptocurrency.

“I was blown away by how many people paid this way [with crypto],” he said, noting that he earned over $7 million from his NFT collections. “I wasn’t overly interested [at first], but I was surprised by the massive amount.”

During his speech, Trump emphasized that crypto is “big and yet it’s a fledgling compared to what it will be… I think my children opened my eyes.”

DeFi and WLFI Token

Donald Trump Jr. and real estate investors Steve and Zach Witkoff highlighted the demand for disruption in the lending market.

“This is the start of a financial revolution,” said Trump Jr.

Dough Finance co-founders Zachary Folkman and Chase Herro, accompanied by Eric Trump, elaborated on the vision behind World Liberty Financial.

“Take the best of DeFi and bring it to the everyday person,” Folkman stated, confirming that WLFI will issue a non-transferable governance token, limited to accredited investors.

The WLFI token distribution is as follows: 63% for public sale, 17% for user rewards, and 20% for team compensation. DeFi enables users to earn returns on stablecoins like USDC and USDT by providing liquidity to decentralized lending platforms.

James Hunt from The Block noted earlier that if the credit appetite for crypto traders rises, DeFi yields might surpass 5%, catalyzing crypto credit markets and boosting digital asset prices.

Anticipation Around World Liberty Financial

The project was first hinted at on August 7 by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, who indicated that further crypto and DeFi announcements were imminent. “Decentralized finance is the future, don’t get left behind,” they stated.

Researcher Steven Zheng identified a connection between the Trump project and Dough Finance after a $1.8 million flash loan attack on Dough Finance in July.

On September 3, CoinDesk reported on the development of a whitepaper outlining a project using Aave on the Ethereum blockchain, revolving around a “credit account system.” Security and stablecoin adoption were stated as top priorities. Recently, social media accounts belonging to Lara and Tiffany Trump faced a hack that promoted a token seemingly tied to World Liberty Financial.

TD Cowen Washington Research Group’s Jaret Seiberg expressed concerns that the Trump family’s crypto initiative might pose political challenges for the industry should Trump win the upcoming election.

“We are worried that the launch will obstruct the bipartisan approach toward crypto regulation,” he mentioned.

Trump’s Evolving Crypto Position

This year, Trump’s views on cryptocurrency shifted, starting in May when his campaign began accepting crypto donations. He has held meetings with bitcoin mining executives and aims to position the United States as the global crypto hub.

On Monday, Trump stated the need for “certain safeguards” in the crypto industry.

Earlier this summer, at the Bitcoin 2024 conference, he expressed intentions to dismiss SEC Chair Gary Gensler if elected and halt sales of U.S. bitcoin holdings. He also supported clemency for Ross Ulbricht, currently serving a life sentence for founding the dark web marketplace Silk Road.

“If we don’t win the election, those under investigation will face severe scrutiny,” Trump warned on Monday night.

In this election cycle, crypto figures and corporations have contributed over $190 million to candidates and PACs, a marked increase from $15 million in 2020. As per The Block, Bitcoin was trading around $57,800 at the time of this publication, reflecting a 1% decline, while Ether was at about $2,280.