Former president and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump will launch a cryptocurrency tomorrow, but the cryptocurrency is very different from many others in the crypto market.
Trump will offer a token for World Liberty Financial (WLFI), which is a decentralized financial platform.
The waitlist opens tomorrow at 8 a.m. ET, which Trump has pledged will be his first step in “making America the crypto capital of the world.”
“I promised to make America great again, this time with crypto,” Trump wrote on X last month. “@WorldLibertyFi plans to help make America the crypto capital of the world! The whitelist of eligible people is officially open: this is your chance to be part of this historic moment.”
WLFI operates as a money market allowing people to borrow, lend, and earn interest on their cryptocurrencies. In the process, the platform removed financial intermediaries for users.
Users will also be able to obtain a token guaranteeing that they have voting rights on WLFI.
“It’s more than just a financial venture,” said Ryan Waite, a political marketing expert and vice president of public affairs at Think Big. News week.
“This represents, in part, a broader policy statement aimed at rallying supporters to engage with the Trump movement while participating in the emerging decentralized finance (DeFi) space. The WLF token is being touted as an opportunity for advocates of “shaping the future of finance” emphasizing financial autonomy and conservative values.
How is WLFI different from Bitcoin?
Although bitcoin is perhaps the most common type of crypto known to most Americans, Trump’s new crypto coin differs in several ways.
“While Bitcoin is primarily a decentralized digital currency and store of value, the WLF token operates within a broader DeFi platform and features elements of governance, utility and political messaging,” said Wait. “It is intended to serve as both an investment vehicle and utility token, allowing its holders to participate in borrowing, lending, and governance within the World Liberty Financial ecosystem.”
Although most cryptocurrencies can be traded, WLFI coin will be non-transferable and yield-free. Additionally, the majority of WLFI tokens will be targeted to accredited investors, with 63% of the token supply reserved for this group.
This is specifically available to those who have a net worth of $1 million or more or who meet the accredited investor threshold.
So far, more than 100,000 accredited US investors have been whitelisted for the project.
Through the sale of WLFI, Trump expects to earn $300 million for the company, which would give it an overall business value of $1.5 billion.
Trump’s upcoming launch has sparked some concerns about how the platform could potentially violate the Constitution. If foreign governments are able to use the platform, it could potentially create a conflict of interest under a second Trump presidency.
“Anyone who thinks this is good for crypto, that it doesn’t make us look like clowns, that it doesn’t set us back YEARS in credibility… It’s such an obvious pump scheme. Can “Maybe he won’t do it literally but he’s just a scammer and it’s pathetic,” Alex Miller, cryptography expert and CEO of Hiro Systems, wrote on X after hearing about Trump’s launch.
The specific requirements for the majority of crypto holders to be accredited investors also leads many to complain about the elitist nature of the project.
“I wish I could be on the white list!… Once again, the middle class is being eliminated!” @PharmD999 wrote on X.
Trump’s crypto views
While Trump may now see crypto as the way of the future, the former president was once opposed to the digital payment system.
After meeting with major Bitcoin players at his Mar-a-Lago home in June, Trump urged crypto investors to vote for him, saying he would counter “Biden’s hatred of Bitcoin.”
This was a far cry from Trump’s views on crypto during his tenure in the White House.
“I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money and whose value is very volatile and based on the zeitgeist,” Trump wrote on social media in 2019. “Unregulated crypto assets can facilitate illegal behavior, including drug trafficking and other illegal activities.
“We only have one real currency in the United States,” Trump also said. “And it will always stay that way. We call it the American dollar!”
Trump also told Fox Business that Bitcoin “appears to be a scam.”
Waite said Trump’s change in perspective could reflect the changing views of his own voting base.
“This turnaround appears partly due to the growing popularity of crypto, particularly among segments of its support base who view digital assets as a way to circumvent centralized financial control,” Waite said.
Alex Beene, a professor of financial literacy at the University of Tennessee at Martin, said the new cryptocurrency appears more like a market that Trump feels he “needs” to grow into, rather than a real passion for it. project.
“Trump’s expansion into cryptocurrencies is not confusing in the sense that it is another business to add to his growing empire, but some of the concepts behind this currency, compared to other others, are radically different,” Beene said. News week.
“It appears from Trump’s own comments that he is not fully sold on the idea, but rather feels that this is a market they ‘need’ to expand into. The entire crypto industry is built on shaky ground, and this new venture is no different, it could actually face more scrutiny if Trump were re-elected.
In the latest NBC News poll, Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris were neck and neck, with each candidate garnering 48% support from the polled voting base.
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