The launch of World Liberty Financial’s (WLF) digital coin, WLFI, has fallen short of its ambitious fundraising goals, despite heavy promotion by Donald Trump and project co-founder Zachary Folkman.
The crypto bank, which aims to offer lending, borrowing, and investing services through digital coins, started its token sale with a target of raising $300 million at a $1.5 billion valuation.
However, after 24 hours, only around $11.8 million has been raised, less than 4% of the 20 billion tokens available for public sale.
Key factors contributing to the underwhelming performance include:
- Low Participation: Despite Folkman’s claim that over 100,000 people had registered to invest, only about 9,050 unique wallet addresses hold the token, representing around 9% of the anticipated investor base.
- Website Issues: The official WLF website, the exclusive marketplace for the token, has experienced frequent outages, limiting investors’ ability to participate in the sale.
- Accredited Investor Restriction: WLFI is a Regulation D token offering, meaning only accredited investors (those with a net worth of over $1 million) can participate. This significantly limits the pool of potential investors.
- Lack of Functional Platform: The crypto bank linked to the coin has not yet been approved or launched. Investors currently hold a type of IOU, and there is no clear governance mechanism for them to vote on, as the platform itself doesn’t exist yet.
Moreover, there has been criticism over the lack of transparency, with no formal white paper or business plan released. The project has only disclosed a brief 400-word proposal in Aave’s governance forum.
Finally, the Trump family’s involvement in the project raises potential concerns. The fine print on WLF’s website mentions that Trump and his family may receive tokens and “significant fees” from the platform, though the exact amount is yet to be determined. This could create conflicts of interest or raise ethical questions about the project’s management and purpose.