The anticipated launch of the Donald Trump World Liberty Financial (WLFI) token has globally faced challenges in raising the expected $300 million. Thus, the fundraising activities have been described as a total failure within two days after it was launched on 15 October since WLFI has raised only around $11 million accounting for only 4% of the target. Actually, with so much effort placed to advertise the project, which was even described as a ‘crypto bank,’ things have turned out different.
Technical Issues Affect Trump Token Sales
It was assumed that the WLFI token would generate a huge interest especially with Trump at the helm. Co-founder Zachary Folkman said that there were more than 100,000 people ready to put their money in. The other side of the coin however is quite different. The project’s website could not be accessed for long periods, exasperating potential purchasers who tried unsuccessfully to participate in the sale.
In actual sense though, the token is really held by less than 9,300 unique wallets, a far cry from the expected investor uptake. The teething problems associated with the project not only curtailed the sales during the launch but also created viable concerns regarding the future of the project.
As of today, the market cap of cryptocurrencies stood at $2.25 trillion. Chart: TradingView.com
Determining Investor Attitude And Regulatory Issues
The WLFI token is described as a D regulation offering whereby it is offered to only a specific group of people known as accredited investors or individuals who either have a net worth of over $1 million or gross income of up to $200,000 annually.
This limitation on investor inclusion effectively reduces the available clientele base. In addition, unlike many of the cryptocurrencies that allow for immediate trading of their tokens, WLFI tokens are non-transferable and are mainly governance tokens. Investors can vote on proposals in the platform but are relatively passive at the moment.
Apart from these obstacles, Trump quite quickly after the launch published a post on social media urging his fans to invest in WLFI. He went on to say that cryptocurrency was the means to go, but his call to action did not result in an immediate upsurge of sales.
A Cloudy Future Ahead?
WLFI’s future is nevertheless unknown even as it battles to acquire momentum. The money gathered is meant for WLF’s treasury, but without a clear path plan or significant rewards for investors, confidence could continue to erode. Critics note that WLFI is opaque; it has not published a comprehensive white paper or business plan that seasoned investors usually demand from such initiatives.
Meanwhile, despite the hiccups, Etherscan data verified that thousands of investors rushed to the Trump-endorsed DeFi project. In the first hour, 3,000 distinct addresses collected about 350 million WLFI coins in the face of the rough start.
Featured image from Andrew Harnik/AP, chart from TradingView
