- World Liberty Financial launched on Tuesday.
- The project has divided the DeFi community.
- Anthony Scaramucci called it a “scam.”
“Self-centered.”
“A scam.”
“A good thing.”
Reactions to the launch of World Liberty Financial, the crypto project backed by former US President Donald Trump and his sons, were mixed on Tuesday.
Although some worry that World Liberty Financial is a high-risk, low-reward business — a “distraction” that could metastasize into a “huge embarrassment” and mess, as crypto VC Nic Carter put it — Others saw it as an opportunity for DéFi.
“(World Liberty Financial) demonstrates an incredibly strong buy-in to the industry,” said Robert Leshner, co-founder and CEO of asset tokenization company Superstate. DL News.
“But also selfish judgment rife with conflicts of interest that distract from the opportunity to develop much-needed crypto policy and legislation.”
Less than three weeks before the US elections and after Trump promised to make the United States a “Bitcoin superpower”, the advent of World Liberty Financial has raised hopes that a new era could dawn for the cryptography.
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Difficult start
Instead, the project got off to a rocky start.
Its website crashed and was unavailable for several hours on Tuesday and World Liberty Financial sold only $11 million worth of tokens during its first day of trading, falling far short of its total goal to sell $300 million in tokens.
Additionally, World Liberty Financial’s decision to block the token sale for 12 months likely dampened action on the token.
Meanwhile, the goal of the project seemed clear. World Liberty Financial expects to achieve $1.5 billion valuation from initial 20 billion token sale, says The block.
More than 100,000 accredited investors have registered to purchase WLFI tokens ahead of its launch, a representative on X said on Monday.
“Surreal”
Regardless, the company has divided the crypto community.
“It’s a little surreal to see the leading presidential candidate engaging in DeFi and promoting a project,” said Mike Silagadze, founder of Ether.Fi, the fourth largest DeFi protocol. “Overall, I think it’s a good thing.”
Vice President Kamala Harris leads Trump by 2% in the FiveThirtyEight national poll. Conversely, a Polymarket bet gives the Republican candidate nearly 17% ahead of his Democratic rival.
Platt argued that the launch of World Liberty Financial was a net positive, no matter what happens to the project. “Bringing people into DeFi and collecting fees is bullish for DeFi,” he said.
World Liberty Financial’s “gold paper” – a decidedly Trumpian version of the crypto practice of publishing so-called white papers that develop new products – says the project will provide “information and access to third-party DeFi applications “.
This includes non-custodial crypto wallets, lending pools, and lending and borrowing protocols. Aave, a lending protocol, will be the first.
Not everyone was convinced. Anthony Scaramucci, founder of investment firm SkyBridge Capital, who briefly served as Trump’s White House communications director and has since become a vocal Trump critic, called the entire project a “scam.”
It’s “a financial scam,” Scaramucci said CoinDesk. “He can convince some of his donors to spend money on it. The money ends up in his pocket and he can then finance the things he needs to do himself. I mean, it’s a transparent scam, and you should avoid it at all costs.
World Liberty Financial did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
October 17 update: This story has been updated to include Robert Leshner’s current title.
Aleks Gilbert is a DeFi correspondent. Do you have any advice? Email to aleks@dlnews.com.
