Today, the platform sold about 917 million tokens, far from the total target of 20 billion.
Trump’s Weak Crypto-Project Start. The industry fears that the lack of clarity on this initiative will jeopardize efforts to rebuild investor confidence. With just over two weeks before the U.S. elections, Donald Trump is doing everything he can to win over voters. His latest initiative has been to go to a McDonald’s to fry fries, to provoke Kamala Harris and accuse her of inventing that he worked at the chain.
There is a part of the electorate that the Republican candidate has been courting for months: the cryptophiles. He has tried in several ways: participating in crypto world events, paying in bitcoin in New York venues, launching a campaign to free Ross Ulbricht, and, not least, creating World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency project he launched in mid-September together with his sons Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Barron Trump, as well as other partners. He intends to turn the United States into the crypto capital of the world; however, a week after its launch, the project has started at half throttle.
At its launch last Tuesday, the result was below expectations: they sold just 576 million tokens, less than 3% of the total target of 20 billion, and technical glitches marked its first day of life, with frequent “we are under maintenance” messages. The World Liberty Financial website, which describes itself as “the only Donald J. Trump-inspired DeFi platform,” began selling the token at a valuation of $0.015. As of today, they raised some $917 million, still far short of its ultimate target, and to access the tokens, investors have to meet specific requirements, such as having a net worth of more than $1 million.
Experts opinion
Trump’s entry into the crypto world has not convinced the industry. When he announced the project, Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano, showed his reservations in an interview with the Financial Times. The entrepreneur considers that the new platform could be “scary” for the sector: his main concern is that the Republican candidate will politicize the industry. “He has taken something bipartisan and is turning it partisan,” he told the British newspaper.
Analysts and industry professionals agree that, in the U.S., cryptocurrencies have become a political issue subject to polarization, something not seen in Europe, for example. In addition, the industry fears that this project will jeopardize the effort to rebuild investor confidence after multiple scandals, such as the collapse of FTX in 2022.
The industry’s fears about the project are well-founded. When Trump announced the initiative, he did not give details of the structure or platform operations, while the conditions for protecting investors remain in the air. This issue led to the imprisonment of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced to a 25-year prison term for his responsibility in the company collapse and the theft of 8 billion dollars from its customers.
Team Doubts
Doubts about the partners accompanying the candidate in his cryptocurrency project. On the website, Trump occupies the position of “crypto advocate in chief,” and his sons Eric, Donald Jr., and Barron as “Web3 Ambassadors,” in the fine print, neither the former president nor any family member has management responsibility in World Liberty Financial. The co-founders are real estate tycoon Steven Witkoff, a Republican donor, his sons Zach and Alex Witkoff, and partners Zak Folkman and Chase Herro, described by U.S. media as crypto punks. The latter two have faced several lawsuits in the U.S. over the years.
Chase Herro, who calls himself “the scoundrel of the internet,” has been promoting dubious products, including a hacked crypto project that lost millions of dollars, as Bloomberg recalls. Zachary Folkman, another of the partners, ran a company called Date Hotter Girls. Hiding under a pseudonym, he advised how to pick up women in bars.
Trump’s chance to return to the White House
Despite this, the increasing chances of Trump returning to the White House, according to the decentralized prediction platform Polymarket, the Republican candidate has a 61% chance of winning, compared to 39% for Kamala Harris, is gasoline for Bitcoin, which is struggling in recent days to reach record highs: it trades at $68,500, 6% below its all-time high.
Crypto investors like Trump’s eventual victory, as he has promised to end the “persecution” of the Crypto industry. In fact, at the Bitcoin conference in Nashville this summer, he promised to fire SEC Chairman Gary Gansler once he got to the White House. As such, his tenure could impact industry regulation, which is looking with interest at the European regulation about to come into force.