Trump’s WLFI crypto token falls short of fundraising expectations

Donald Trump’s WLFI token is missing the mark on its fundraising goals. Less than two days since its launch, the numbers are far from the hyped-up projections made by its founders.

World Liberty Financial (WLF), the company behind the token which calls itself a “crypto bank,” launched WLFI on Tuesday with much fanfare.

Co-founder Zachary Folkman claimed on a stream just a day earlier that over 100,000 people were on the whitelist to buy in. He told his X followers that:

“We knew that there was a lot of excitement in the marketplace. These numbers are, in my opinion, unheard of.”

But right now, only 9,050 unique wallet addresses hold the token.

Fans disappoint Trump

On-chain data from Etherscan shows only about 9% of those who registered went ahead with their investment.

In a bid to sell 20 billion tokens at 1.5 cents each, WLF had high hopes of pulling in $300 million. The current haul? Just around $11.8 million.

That translates to less than 4% of the tokens being sold so far. It’s a far cry from the dream valuation of $1.5 billion they had initially set.

Trump himself gave the WLFI token a boost, making a video on Tuesday, urging his followers to jump into the sale. He called crypto “the future” and drove traffic to the website.

Technical issues and legal troubles

It wasn’t just lack of interest that held WLFI back. The project’s website, which was the only place to buy the token, was plagued with problems.

It repeatedly went down, showing users an “under maintenance” message. This left many potential buyers unable to access the sale at all.

Another major factor limiting WLFI’s reach is its classification as a Regulation D token offering. This choice allows the project to bypass SEC registration, severely limiting the number of people who can buy in.

Regulation D means only accredited investors can take part. To qualify, these investors must have a net worth of over $1 million, among other restrictions.

On top of that, WLFI’s role as a governance token doesn’t offer the same kind of rewards that other crypto projects do. Buying WLFI gives investors the right to vote on decisions affecting the protocol. But as of now, there’s nothing to vote on.

WLF has started the approval process with Aave, one of the more established crypto lending platforms, but there’s no guarantee the process will be quick. Until then, the only thing WLFI investors can do is wait.

The money raised goes straight into WLF’s treasury, and the project offers nothing concrete in return for now.

Transparency issues

One thing that might be worrying for some potential buyers is the lack of transparency around the project. Unlike most new crypto launches, WLFI hasn’t released a white paper or a detailed business plan.

What they have shared is a 400-word proposal on Aave’s governance forum, which is nowhere near the level of detail that seasoned investors would expect from a project of this scale. Plus, 70% of it belongs to Trump and his family, directly going against the concept of decentralization.

According to WLF’s website, they are also entitled to receive an undisclosed amount of tokens and “significant fees” for their involvement.

All this comes amid an extremely tight political race between Trump and his Democratic opponent, the sitting Vice President Kamala Harris.

Some polls show that Harris holds a narrow lead in key battleground states, while others show a dead heat between the two candidates.