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Former President Donald Trump used decentralized finance (DeFi) with his initiative, World freedom financialhas officially started onboarding users, with a public sale of its WLFI token scheduled for October 15.
This announcement comes as the project aims to raise $300 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion through its initial token offering, which attracted significant attention in the cryptocurrency community.
The Trump DeFi Initiative
In a recent post on X (formerly Twitter), World Liberty Financial announced that the public sale will be open to individuals who qualify through a whitelist process. The governance token, WLFI, will have a non-transferable status for the first twelve months, although it will allow holders to immediately participate in voting on platform decisions.
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The first phase of the project involves launching a DeFi lending platform, modeled after Aave, on Scroll, an Ethereum Layer 2 solution. It will initially support Bitcoin, Ethereum and stablecoins, with future plans to introduce a stablecoin-focused credit card, facilitate integration with exchanges for seamless asset transfers and fractionalize real-world assets such as hotels and clubs.
World Liberty Financial is being presented as a key part of Trump’s vision to “make America great again, this time with crypto.” The initiative objectives to position the US as the leading global hub for cryptocurrency, improving financial security and enabling peer-to-peer transactions without intermediaries through decentralized finance.
However, specific features and a final launch date for the platform have yet to be announced.
Interestingly, a preliminary white paper for the project includes a disclaimer stating that World Liberty Financial is “not owned, managed, operated or sold” by the Trump family, although it notes that they may compensation from the initiative. This disclaimer is intended to clarify the structure of the project amid ongoing research.
Political polarization on the way?
The launch of World Liberty Financial has raised expectations among investors, but has also raised eyebrows within the cryptocurrency community, especially among industry leaders such as Charles Hoskinson, co-founder of the Ethereum and Cardano blockchains.
Hoskinson has expressed concerns that Trump’s DeFi venture could become a “political flashpoint,” exacerbating existing tensions around cryptocurrency regulation in the US under the Biden administration.
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Hoskinson also warned that the political polarization around Trump could provoke a response from Democrats that could threaten the viability of the initiative.
The Cardano founder indicated that if Democrats view Trump’s DeFi project as a significant threat, they could use government power to limitspotentially driving many crypto projects offshore to jurisdictions with more favorable regulations.
Despite his concerns, Hoskinson acknowledged that it has attracted influential investors and advocates. However, he remains skeptical about whether this support will translate into effective policy changes if Trump returns to power.
Featured image of DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com