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Donald Trump’s World Liberty Financial DeFi Project Accepts Sign-Ups, Remains Vague on Use Cases
- Trump, once a crypto critic, now promotes it and teases a Bitcoin reserve, launching his DeFi project, World Liberty Financial.
- Initially restricted, WLF is now open for sign-ups by accredited US investors and non-US persons.
- WLF is presented as enhancing financial security via decentralised peer-to-peer asset trading, though specific details and launch date remain undisclosed.
- Questions about WLF’s credibility persist, with Trump potentially profiting and Chase Herro, a controversial figure, behind the project.
Things are moving fast for Donald Trump and crypto. He went from disliking crypto – calling it a “scam against the dollar” – and otherwise mainly talking negatively about it during his first term as President of the United States, to liking and promoting it, and even teasing a Bitcoin reserve.
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And now he’s ready to launch his very own decentralised finance (DeFi) project, World Liberty Financial (WLF), officially announced only two weeks ago during a Rug Radio talk at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
WLF Claims to Be for All Americans
As per posts on social media, white-listing for the DeFi project has now opened and “accredited US investors and non-US persons” can now sign up to the enigmatic platform. It’s yet to transpire what the actual use case will be.
An accredited investor in the US is an individual or business entity permitted to trade unregistered securities by meeting specific income, net worth, asset size, governance, or professional experience criteria.
Trump and his sons recently introduced World Liberty Financial during the earlier mentioned online event, aimed at enhancing financial security and enabling free transactions.
However, specific details about the platform’s capabilities and a launch date have not yet been disclosed.
Despite initially claiming that WLF would be for all Americans, it seems it has yet to fully fulfil that promise.
We plan for all Americans to be able to use this platform in the future, giving everyone access to the tools and opportunities that have been restricted for far too long.
World Liberty Financial
Questions Remain Around WLF
It remains to be seen what purpose WLF will serve. Donald Trump, its “chief crypto advocate” denied that he or his family own or operate the platform, but said they potentially receive monetary compensation.
Behind the project is a little-known person by the name Chase Herro. According to Bloomberg, over a dozen ‘digital asset investors’ asked are unaware of Herro.
Herro, who has sold everything from weed to get-rich-quick schemes, is relatively unknown in the crypto world, with his few projects either attracting minimal investment or failing significantly. Herro has even referred to himself as “the dirtbag of the internet” and acknowledged that regulators should target people like him.
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Tarun Chitra, general partner at Robot Ventures, said the WLF is nothing new and projects like this often fail. He also questioned the former president’s motives:
This just feels like a fly-by-night, trying to make a quick buck, kind of thing. It really doesn’t seem earnest to me.
Tarun Chitra, Robot Ventures Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, said that when Trump makes an endorsement, he considers not whether a product has utility but whether it will make him money.
Is there upfront money attached? If the economics of the deal are to his benefit, with zero risk, he’s all in.
Michael Cohen, former Trump lawyer 
Author
Aaron Feuerstein
Aaron Feuerstein is a freelance writer based in Melbourne. His focus is on decentralised finance and the regulatory space surrounding blockchain. He holds a Master's in Accounting. When he is not studying the latest legal case, he enjoys his time as a modest but eager hobby cook.
