Trump’s Busy Schedule Amidst New Crypto Venture

With just over a month and a half remaining until the U.S. presidential election, Donald Trump has a jam-packed agenda consisting of rallies, debates, and stump speeches as he travels across the nation to campaign in crucial battleground states. Recently, at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, he was subjected to an incident described by the FBI as an attempted assassination. Despite these challenges, the former president and Republican nominee has carved out time on Monday evening to announce a new venture in the cryptocurrency space: World Liberty Financial.

At 8 p.m. on X (formerly known as Twitter), Trump is set to livestream the details of this blockchain application, which he and his sons have been hinting at for months leading up to the November election. However, this project has already stirred controversy. Recently, hackers breached X accounts belonging to members of the Trump family, disseminating fake links related to the crypto company. Although the official launch of the app is still pending, leaked information regarding the project’s leadership team—along with its association with another recently compromised crypto app—has raised concerns among some of Trump’s supporters in the cryptocurrency community.

Earlier this month, CoinDesk managed to obtain a confidential draft outlining the project’s aims to make decentralized finance (DeFi) accessible to a broader audience. Decentralized finance encompasses blockchain-based tools that enable users to trade, borrow, lend, and invest assets directly, bypassing traditional financial intermediaries.

After previously dismissively referring to bitcoin as “based on thin air” back in 2019, Trump has since embraced the technology, enhancing his pro-crypto rhetoric in recent months. This shift comes as the blockchain sector has emerged as one of the most significant sources of corporate fundraising during this election cycle. His address at the Bitcoin Nashville conference in July, where he articulated supportive crypto policies, received enthusiastic standing ovations and cheers from thousands of attendees.

Key Players in World Liberty Financial

The team behind World Liberty Financial comprises a blend of Trump family members—18-year-old Barron is notably listed as the chief “DeFi Visionary”—alongside seasoned financial experts and leaders from the blockchain industry. Trump’s designated role within the project is to serve as the “chief crypto advocate,” as noted in the white paper.

Leading the initiative are Zak Folkman and Chase Herro, who are relatively unknown figures in the crypto landscape. CoinDesk previously reported that this duo was behind Dough Finance, a DeFi product that struggled to gain traction and suffered a hacking incident resulting in a loss of $2 million over the summer. The pitch for World Liberty Financial appears to closely mirror that of Dough. Both platforms aim to offer user-friendly interfaces for accessing Aave, a widely-used Ethereum-based lending market. Notably, some early code for Trump’s crypto app seems to have been directly adapted from Folkman and Herro’s previous endeavor.

Outside the crypto realm, Folkman and Herro are also the founders of Subify, a platform designed for censorship-free subscriptions, akin to OnlyFans, which gained notoriety due to its association with influencer Logan Paul. Folkman, who registered the LLC for World Liberty Financial, previously conducted seminars aimed at teaching men how to attract women. Meanwhile, Herro has branded himself as the “dirtbag of the internet,” promoting various dubious ventures, including failed cryptocurrencies and get-rich-quick schemes.

Prospective Crypto Token and Community Reactions

In the world of cryptocurrency, projects commonly issue governance tokens to “decentralize” their offerings and navigate complex securities regulations. While World Liberty Financial has yet to officially announce plans for a cryptocurrency, the white paper reviewed by CoinDesk hints at an eventual governance token called WLFI.

According to the document, the Ethereum-based WLFI token will be non-transferable, meaning it will not be tradable on the blockchain. However, holders will have the ability to vote on changes to the development roadmap of World Liberty Financial. An unusually high 70% of WLFI tokens are reportedly allocated for the project’s team and developers, with the remainder intended for public sale, the proceeds of which will also benefit World Liberty insiders. In contrast, typical allocations for founder, investor, and developer tokens in crypto projects rarely exceed 20% or 30% of the total supply. The substantial allocation to insiders for WLFI raises eyebrows, especially since presales are relatively uncommon in today’s crypto landscape due to potential legal and practical challenges.

The restrictions on transfers may serve to position WLFI as less like a traditional stock in the eyes of regulators, as they complicate the buying and selling process akin to other speculative cryptocurrencies. Nevertheless, traders often engage in selling IOUs for blockchain assets through legal agreements and informal arrangements, and WLFI holders could theoretically vote to enable the asset’s transferability on blockchain platforms in the future.

Trump has positioned himself as the sole advocate for cryptocurrency in this year’s presidential race, and his crypto venture employs a populist, anti-establishment narrative that could resonate with single-issue crypto voters and MAGA supporters alike. Notably, during last week’s televised debate, neither Trump nor his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, mentioned cryptocurrency.

While the exact nature of World Liberty Financial may evolve, some supporters within the crypto industry are expressing trepidation that the entire initiative could backfire. “Is there something that we, as crypto Twitter, can collectively do to stop the launch of World Liberty Coin?” Nic Carter, a well-known figure in the crypto space and a Trump supporter, asked on X (formerly Twitter) following CoinDesk’s initial report on the white paper.

Despite the Trump family’s significant involvement in World Liberty Financial and Donald Trump’s scheduled unveiling on Monday evening, the project’s white paper asserts that the platform has no political affiliations. It states: “World Liberty Financial is not owned, managed, operated, or sold by Donald J. Trump, the Trump Organization, or any of their respective family members, affiliates, or principals.” Furthermore, it adds: “However, they may own $WLFI and receive compensation from World Liberty Financial and its developers. World Liberty Financial and $WLFI are not political and have no affiliation with any political campaign.”