Trump-Backed WLFI Token Sale Stumbles with Website Outages, Raises Only 1.7% of Goal
The Trump-backed World Liberty Financial (WLFI) token sale kicked off on October 15, 2024, with a rocky start, as its official website experienced multiple crashes, hindering the sale. By 15:41 UTC, only 344 million tokens—just 1.7% of the 20 billion tokens allocated—had been sold to around 3,000 unique wallets.
High Demand Causes Technical Setbacks
WLFI tokens, which are designed to govern the World Liberty Financial platform for decentralized finance (DeFi) activities such as lending, borrowing, and liquidity pooling, were in high demand, but the website’s infrastructure couldn’t handle the traffic.
Sandy Peng, advisor to WLFI and co-founder of Scroll blockchain network, explained that the site faced an unexpected surge of interest, receiving 72 million unique visits within the first hour. The intense load caused the platform to crash multiple times, forcing the team to switch to a new hosting service.
“The team wasn’t expecting this level of interest,” Peng commented, “but we’ve worked around the clock to get the site back online.”
Token Sales Slowly Pick Up
Despite the technical difficulties, sales eventually showed some improvement. When the website was functional again for about an hour around 17:30 UTC, token sales began to ramp up. By 18:10 UTC, an Ethereum blockchain wallet connected to the WLFI token sale had accumulated nearly $5.7 million in ether (ETH), $1.6 million in tether (USDT), and around $300,000 in USD Coin (USDC).
However, the initial goal of raising $300 million from the sale of 20 billion tokens remains a distant target. Priced at $0.015 per token, the public sale is far from reaching its fundraising ambitions.
Also read: Donald Trump’s Crypto Project, World Liberty Financial, to Begin Token Sale Tuesday
Trump Family’s Role in the Project
World Liberty Financial’s deep ties with the Trump family have been central to its promotion. Former U.S. President Donald Trump is listed as the “chief crypto advocate” of the project, while his sons Eric and Donald Jr. serve as “Web3 ambassadors,” and his youngest son Barron has been named the “DeFi visionary.” The family’s involvement has drawn significant attention to the project, particularly among Trump supporters.
Regulatory Constraints and Accredited Investors
To avoid complications with U.S. securities regulations, the WLFI token sale is restricted to non-U.S. persons and accredited U.S. investors. Over 100,000 accredited investors were pre-whitelisted ahead of the launch. In the U.S., accredited investors must meet specific financial criteria, including earning at least $200,000 annually or having a net worth of over $1 million.
What’s Next for World Liberty Financial?
The WLFI token plays a crucial role in World Liberty Financial’s governance structure, allowing holders to vote on various platform decisions, such as protocol upgrades, promotional partnerships, and security risks. However, tokens purchased in this sale are currently non-transferable, meaning holders won’t be able to trade or sell them immediately.
While the project has garnered significant attention due to the Trump family’s involvement and promises of reshaping the DeFi space, it remains to be seen if the sale will recover from its challenging start and meet its ambitious fundraising goals.
The World Liberty Financial token sale has begun on shaky ground, plagued by technical glitches and slow sales. Despite these early challenges, there’s still a strong chance for the project to rally, especially with the Trump family’s promotional push and the rising interest in DeFi governance tokens. Time will tell if World Liberty Financial can fulfill its promise as a key player in the crypto space.
