Donald Trump’s debut in the cryptocurrency arena with the World Liberty Financial (WLFI) token faced significant challenges during its launch on October 15.
Despite extensive promotion from Trump and his family, the token sale struggled to gain traction.
The WLFI token launch was initiated with a live stream on X Spaces, although Trump did not attend. While initial sales exceeded $5 million within the first hour, the project’s website quickly experienced technical failures, including crashes that disrupted transactions.
Designed to raise $300 million by targeting over 100,000 accredited U.S. investors, the sale ultimately saw limited engagement due to these technical difficulties. Only about 5,400 participants managed to purchase tokens, leaving a vast number of the 35 billion tokens earmarked for this sale unsold.
With the Ethereum wallet overseeing the sale holding more than $5 million in various cryptocurrencies, this amount fell far below the project’s lofty financial target.
Serving as the project’s “Chief Crypto Advocate,” Trump has intertwined his political brand with the cryptocurrency initiative, supported by his sons as Web3 ambassadors. World Liberty Financial aims to bring Web3 technology to a broader audience by promoting decentralized finance (DeFi) functionalities.
Despite the setbacks, Trump’s increasing political clout could potentially rekindle interest in WLFI. As of October 10, his chances of winning the next election against Vice President Kamala Harris were estimated at 53%, which may elevate the project’s visibility and influence Bitcoin’s market performance.
The crypto lending landscape is undergoing a quiet transformation. While centralized giants like Tether continue to dominate headlines, the real momentum is building elsewhere—in decentralized finance.
Recent trading data shows a clear tilt toward optimism among Binance users when it comes to XRP.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is taking additional time to evaluate a proposal that would allow Grayscale to integrate Ethereum staking into its spot ETF offerings.
Crypto exchange Kraken is broadening its horizons beyond digital assets, officially rolling out commission-free U.S. stock and ETF trading to users in select states.