- Trump-backed World Liberty Financial launched its WLFI token on Tuesday.
- But the project website was often offline.
World Liberty Finance, the crypto project backed by former President Donald Trump, collapsed for several hours after it began selling its token to accredited investors on Tuesday.
World Liberty began selling the token just after midnight UTC. As of noon New York time, more than 3,200 crypto wallets held the token, according to blockchain data.
But it has struggled to stay online since its launch. Attempts to access the website on Tuesday usually returned a message saying it was “under maintenance.”
The token is only available to qualified investors who meet certain financial criteria. According to World Liberty representatives speaking Monday on a live forum hosted on
The project could provide the former president and his family with hundreds of millions of dollars from token sales.
Code testing suggests the project planned to sell 30% of its 100 billion WFLI tokens at a valuation of $1.8 billion. But a roadmap shared with potential investors indicates it would attempt to sell 20% at a valuation of $1.5 billion, The Block reported last week.
The sale, if it finds buyers for the 20 billion tokens on offer, would put $300 million into World Liberty’s coffers.
The outsized allocation of 70% of the project’s tokens to insiders, along with other concerns, has raised eyebrows among some crypto observers.
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Channel sleuths were quick to point out its connection to Dough Finance, a DeFi protocol that was hacked for $2.1 million in July.
World Liberty is a lending protocol built using code from Aave, the largest protocol of its kind on Ethereum. Aave is expected to receive 7% of World Liberty’s WLFI token and 20% of future fees it generates.
As in other DeFi projects, WLFI tokens will allow users to vote on protocol development initiatives.
The company said the token would not be tradable, meaning it would have no market value, although code testing reveals it could be made tradable in the future.
World Liberty marks the first time a US presidential candidate has launched a crypto token sale, raising questions about potential conflicts of interest and the impact on campaign finance laws.
It has even drawn attention from some Trump supporters in the crypto industry, who fear it could expose him to unnecessary legal or reputational risks.
Although members of the Trump family promote global freedom, none of them are legally involved, according to a disclaimer in the project’s documentation, reported by CoinDesk.
Trump’s sons, Eric and Donald Jr., first teased the World Liberty project in early August. Since then, Trump himself has been promoting it on social media.
Barron Trump, 18, who recently enrolled as a freshman at New York University, is listed as World Liberty’s “DeFi visionary,” according to project documentation, CoinDesk reported.
Its role is unclear. Trump’s youngest son does not appear to have been previously involved in DeFi.
World Liberty’s pseudonymous advisor Ogle previously confirmed DL News that Eric, Donald Jr. and Barron are all involved in World Liberty.
Aleks Gilbert is a New York-based journalist who covers DeFi. You can contact him at aleks@dlnew.com.
