Key Takeaways
- WLFI token sale faced website crashes due to high traffic.
- Only 1.7% of the 20 billion WLFI tokens were sold during the initial sale.
- Trump and his sons are deeply involved in promoting World Liberty Financial.
The launch of World Liberty Financial’s (WLF) WLFI token sale, heavily promoted by the Trump family, faced significant challenges on October 15 when the website crashed due to high traffic.
Despite these issues, 344 million tokens were sold to around 3,000 wallets, representing just 1.7% of the 20 billion tokens offered in the public sale.
Live sale
The sale went live at 12:40 UTC, but website outages plagued the first few hours, attributed to over 72 million visits in the opening hour.
As the website briefly returned online, sales increased, with the Ethereum wallet linked to the sale holding nearly $5.7 million in ether (ETH), $1.6 million in tether (USDT), and $300,000 in USD Coin (USDC).
The WLFI token is designed to give users governance control over the WLF platform, which focuses on DeFi services such as borrowing and lending.
Trump was listed as the “chief crypto advocate,” while his sons, Eric, Donald Jr., and Barron, hold key roles in the project. The token sale is limited to non-U.S. persons and accredited U.S. investors, with a target of raising $300 million.
Bitcoiners’ skepticism
Despite the high-profile backing, many in the Bitcoin community remain skeptical of the WLFI project, viewing it and other DeFi projects with caution.
Bitcoiners argue that such tokens often lack the fundamental properties that make Bitcoin valuable, such as true decentralization, limited supply, and a proven track record of security.
Critics within the Bitcoin community point out that governance tokens like WLFI may lead to centralization and potential manipulation, while also expressing concerns about regulatory risks, especially given Trump’s involvement.
