World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance (DeFi) crypto project promoted by former President Donald Trump and his sons, will only sell up to $30 million of its tokens in the United States, Bloomberg reported on Saturday.
According to a notice filed by World Liberty with US regulators earlier this week, the company “currently plans” to sell only $30 million worth of tokens in the country. Although the company is based in Delaware, it is operated from Puerto Rico.
The company has approximately $288.5 million worth of tokens for sale, meaning the majority of token sales (nearly 90%) will take place overseas. So far, fewer than 350 US investors have purchased the tokens.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which seeks to regulate tokens as securities, has made it difficult for companies to use token sales as a fundraising tool. World Liberty uses an exemption called Regulation D to sell tokens to US investors.
Regulation D allows U.S. companies to raise unlimited funds from an unlimited number of investors. However, investors must be institutions or high-net-worth individuals meeting certain criteria. For example, individual investors must have a net worth of more than $1 million, not including their home.
Regulation D also imposes strict requirements on businesses. For example, companies are required to file a public notice listing details of the offering, such as the amount raised, the number of investors, and the principal officers and sponsors of the sale.
According to the filing, World Liberty has raised $2.7 million from 348 investors by selling tokens under Regulation D since October 15.
Although World Liberty’s filing mentions Trump and his sons, Don Jr. and Eric, it adds that their names are included for “informational purposes and do not reflect a determination” that they are officially promoting the offer. Trump and his sons have promoted global freedom as part of the DeFi campaign to democratize access to financial services.
World Liberty’s token sales follow the launch of Trump’s fourth collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) depicting the former president.
In a September interview, World Liberty co-founder Zachary Folkman said any potential sales of non-U.S. tokens would take place under another exemption, Regulation S, which is available for tokens sold to non-US investors. Regulation S has far fewer requirements than Regulation D but limits fundraising to foreign investors only.
