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Crypto Project World Liberty Financial, Promoted by Trump Family, Confirms Plan for Token

Officials and advisors to the project confirmed, during a much-anticipated two-hour-plus Spaces on X, that the non-transferable governance token will be available under an SEC Regulation D exemption.

Updated Sep 17, 2024, 10:37 p.m. Published Sep 17, 2024, 2:55 a.m.
Eric, Donald and Donald Trump Jr. (Desiree Navarro/WireImage)
Eric, Donald and Donald Trump Jr. (Desiree Navarro/WireImage)
  • World Liberty Financial, a crypto project the Trump family has endorsed, will launch a governance token WLFI.
  • The token will be non-transferable offered only to accredited investors under an SEC Regulation D exemption as the team cited regulatory uncertainty in the U.S.

Team members behind the World Liberty Financial crypto project, which has been promoted by former President Donald Trump and his sons, confirmed during an X Spaces live audio stream that they will launch a governance token WLFI.

WLFI will be non-transferable and won't provide any economic rights, the team said on the stream. They said they only want token buyers who are seeking to be participants in governance, not those after an economic return.

Some 63% of the token will be sold to the public, with 17% reserved for user rewards and 20% going to the team. CoinDesk reported some details of the project last week, citing a draft white paper.

As of now, the token will be sold only to accredited investors under what is known as a Regulation D exemption from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Regulation D exemptions allow companies to raise capital without registering securities with the SEC, primarily by offering securities to accredited investors or in small, private offerings.

“Our goal is to build projects that are easy and simple to use and where you don’t need to phone a friend to get a walkthrough,” Zak Folkman, one of the project’s founders, said during the stream.

The team didn’t share a launch date for the token during the nearly two-and-a-half-hour stream, which brought in over 100,000 listeners.

Polymarket betting

A Polymarket contract asking if Trump will launch a coin before the election peaked at over 80% for the Yes side during the live stream, but sank to as low as 22% as the stream ended.

Earlier in the discussion, various members of the Trump family joined the discussion to share their views on crypto.

Donald Trump Jr. talked about how he sees DeFi as, “what our founding fathers intended for the country,” as it brings back fairness to the financial system.

“Venture Capitalists are flipping sides over crypto,” he said, noting endorsements from the likes of David Sacks and Elon Musk.

Eric Trump said on the session that DeFi needed to be easier to use for regular people, noting the extreme difficulties he encountered when "looping Ethereum on Aave," a decentralized lending platform.

While former President Donald Trump joined the X Spaces session for the first 40 minutes, he didn’t discuss the project and instead shared his views on crypto public policy developments.

"Crypto's one of those things we have to do, whether we like it or not," Trump said.

Another Polymarket contract asking users to bet on what Trump would say during the stream had markets for “Solana”, “Memecoin”, “Milady” and “Doge” but the former president failed to mention any of these. He did, however, say “Crypto” over five times and “NFT” once.

Sam Reynolds

Sam Reynolds is a senior reporter based in Taipei. Sam was part of the CoinDesk team that won the 2023 Gerald Loeb award in the breaking news category for coverage of FTX's collapse. Prior to CoinDesk, he was a reporter with Blockworks and a semiconductor analyst with IDC.

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