Trump Unveils New Crypto Platform

Somewhat lost in the shuffle following the second attempt on his life in as many months, former President Donald Trump launched a new venture on Monday: World Liberty Financial, a crypto platform that will be controlled by sons Don Jr. and Eric. 

In a live stream on X Monday evening, Trump discussed the venture, though he began the event by recounting the events of Sunday’s attempted assassination, as we reported. 

‘We Heard Shots’: Trump Describes What Really Happened
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Join me live from Mar-A-Lago at 8:00PM Eastern, tonight on X Spaces. Set a reminder and be sure to tune in! https://t.co/MXTu3hxVFP

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 16, 2024

Apparently, the business press was anxious to get to the skinny on the crypto, as most of the reporting on the event frames the live stream as “meandering” or “rambling.” (How dare Trump discuss being nearly killed? Who does that guy think he is?!)

The Trumps are putting their names behind a new crypto project, one promoted Monday night in a meandering two-hour livestream on the social media site X that was remarkably light on detail.

Why it matters: Former president Donald Trump seems to be leveraging attention from his White House run to promote a new business venture — one that by its nature could spark calls of constitutional conflicts.

The former president, who had teased the announcement of World Liberty Financial to his over 90 million followers on X, spoke during a hosted Q&A to start the stream. He spoke broadly about the blockchain industry, the success of his NFT collections and crypto’s generational learning curve.

• He didn’t personally speak about the project he is launching before turning the stream over to his sons and partners.

The platform is reportedly being described as a decentralized finance (DeFi) money market, or a platform where people can borrow, lend and earn interest on crypto.

• DeFi differs from traditional finance in that it doesn’t include anyone in the middle to facilitate transactions. Everything is done on a blockchain, governed by smart contracts created by the project.
• Today, there is already roughly $44 billion in crypto posted to back DeFi loans globally.

How it works: The only thing the project team spoke to specifically Monday night was the fact that the project will launch a new cryptocurrency — sort of.

• It will create a so-called governance token, called WLFI, which will not be transferable and will not earn yield. It can only be used to vote on changes for the project.
• 63% of the supply will be sold to accredited public investors, with no pre-sales or VC allocation, project partner Chase Herro said. Another 17% will be set aside for rewards, while the remaining 20% will be help by the project team for compensation.

Here’s a bit more on the endeavor: 

Lofty goals set by those involved in the project on Monday night’s X space suggest that World Liberty Financial will be a sort of crypto banking platform, where the general public will be encouraged to borrow, lend and invest in crypto.

There will also be an accompanying token called WLFI, founders said Monday.

The equity structure for these tokens will be that 20% of the project’s tokens are allotted to the founding team, which includes the Trumps, 17% of tokens are set aside for user rewards, and the remaining 63% of the coins will be made available for the public to purchase, said founder Zak Folkman.

There will be no pre-sales or early buy ins, Folkman added.

…

The token will be a Reg D token offering, which follows the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation D — a provision that makes it possible for a company to raise capital without first registering their securities with the commission so long as certain conditions are met.

Trump also explained why his views on crypto have evolved. 

Over the course of Trump’s 40-minute fireside chat at the top of the more than two hour livestream, he talked about how he “wasn’t overly interested” in crypto initially.

But that changed, he said, when sales of his Trump trademarked nonfungible token collections were paid for with crypto. “I think my children opened my eyes more than anything else.”

“Crypto is one of those things we have to do,” Trump said near the end of his remarks. “Whether we like it or not, we have to do it.”

Skeptics characterize the venture as risky and point to potential constitutional issues should Trump regain the White House. Expect the litigation to come rolling in in 3…2..1….