Donald Trump’s new cryptocurrency initiative, World Liberty Financial (WLF), has encountered major challenges since its launch. The project, which aims to build a crypto bank, was expected to attract a lot of investor interest, according to CNBC. However, the token sale that began on Tuesday was affected by website outages and technical issues, severely limiting participation.

Trump's cryptocurrency investment suffers setback

WLF co-founder Zachary Folkman previously said more than 100,000 people were whitelisted for the investment opportunity. Despite the good start, the reality was very different.

As of Tuesday afternoon, blockchain data from Etherscan showed that only about 4,300 unique wallet addresses held WLF tokens, or about 4% of registered investors.


The platform sold more than 532 million tokens at 15 cents per share, representing less than 3% of the total 20 billion tokens available for public sale, the report said.

Throughout the day, users faced continuous outages, with the website frequently displaying the message “We are currently undergoing maintenance.” WLF has yet to make an official comment on these technical issues.

The setbacks come at an opportune time for Trump, a Republican presidential candidate who has been heavily promoting the project since August under the brand “The DeFiant Ones,” a nod to decentralized finance (DeFi).

The project’s roadmap states that it has an ambitious goal of raising up to $300 million at a $1.5 billion valuation in its first sale.

Investors will get voting rights on the WLF platform

Folkman, who has an extensive entrepreneurial background and previously owned a company called Date Hotter Girls, said 20% of WLF’s tokens were allocated to the founding team, which includes members of the Trump family.

The WLF token, WLFI, is a Regulation D offering, which allows it to raise funds without having to register as a security with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but only if certain conditions are met, such as limiting the size of the sale and restricting participation to accredited investors. So far, details about the project’s functionality remain scarce.

People associated with the Trump family project said the platform will facilitate lending and investing in cryptocurrencies. However, a formal white paper or comprehensive business plan has not yet been made public, and the main disclosure is that investors will have voting rights on the upcoming WLF platform.

In a step toward legitimacy, WLF has also initiated the process of gaining approval from Aave, a DeFi ecosystem and lending platform known for its open-source framework and reputation in the crypto community.