World Liberty Finance, the crypto project backed by former president Donald Trump, crashed for several hours after it began selling its token to accredited investors 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 the launch. Attempts to access the website Tuesday typically returned a message saying it was “down for maintenance.”
The token is only available to accredited investors who meet certain financial criteria. According to World Liberty representatives who spoke on a live forum hosted on X on Monday, more than 100,000 accredited investors had registered for WLFI access ahead of the launch.
The project could provide the former president and his family with hundreds of millions of dollars from token sales.
Code tests suggested the project planned to sell 30% of its 100 billion WFLI tokens at a $1.8 billion valuation. But a roadmap shared with prospective investors said 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 all 20 billion tokens on offer, would put $300 million into World Liberty coffers.
The outsized allocation of 70% of the project’s tokens to insiders, as well as other concerns, have raised eyebrows of some crypto observers.
On-chain sleuths were quick to highlight 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 such protocol on Ethereum. Aave is set to receive 7% of World Liberty’s WLFI token and 20% of the future fees it generates.
As in other DeFi projects, WLFI tokens will allow users to vote on the protocol’s development initiatives.
The company said the token won’t be tradable, meaning it won’t have a market value, though code tests reveal 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 elicited eyerolls from some Trump supporters in the crypto industry who fear it could expose him to unnecessary legal or reputational risk.
Though Trump family members promote World Liberty, none of them are legally involved, per a disclaimer in the project’s documentation, reported by CoinDesk.
Trump’s sons, Eric and Donald Jr., first teased the World Liberty project at the beginning of August. Since then, Trump himself has promoted it on social media.
Barron Trump, 18, who recently enrolled in his freshman year at New York University, is listed as World Liberty’s “DeFi visionary,” per the project’s documentation, CoinDesk reported.
His role isn’t clear. Trump’s youngest son doesn’t appear to have any prior involvement in DeFi.
Pseudonymous World Liberty adviser Ogle previously confirmed to DL News that Eric, Donald Jr., and Barron are all involved in World Liberty.
Aleks Gilbert is a New York-based reporter covering DeFi. You can contact him at aleks@dlnew.com.
