World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency project backed by the Trump family, has launched its token sale, raising nearly $11 million. Despite the hype surrounding the project and an announcement from Republican candidate Donald Trump, the sale has struggled to gain significant momentum, achieving only 4% of its 20 billion token target within 24 hours.
Token Sale Off to a Slow Start
The sale began quietly at 12:40 UTC on Tuesday, with just over 792.36 million tokens sold by the following day. Despite over 2,900 investors participating, technical issues on the site caused outages during the first hour, hampering the initial response. By Wednesday, nearly 344 million tokens had been sold to approximately 3,000 unique wallets. Since then, the project has attracted another 6,000 unique holders, according to Etherscan data.
Although Trump’s announcement on X (formerly Twitter) briefly boosted sales, it did not create a significant spike in purchases, with only 180 million additional tokens sold after the post. The current price of each WLFI token is $0.015, and most holders have purchased less than $1,000 worth on average. An Ethereum wallet linked to the project holds over $8 million in ETH and $3 million in other tokens, primarily stablecoins.
Governance Token Limits Speculative Interest
One factor contributing to the muted interest in World Liberty Financial’s token sale could be the nature of the WLFI token. It serves as a non-transferable governance token, allowing users to participate in decentralized finance (DeFi) activities like borrowing, lending, and liquidity pooling. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, WLFI cannot be traded or sold at a higher value, making it less appealing to speculative investors.
This cautious start stands in stark contrast to the explosive success of other projects in the cryptocurrency space, where memecoins and whitepapers can raise millions of dollars within hours of their launch. The project originally aimed to raise $300 million at a $1.5 billion valuation.
Political Context: Trump’s Pro-Crypto Stance
World Liberty Financial is closely tied to Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. Trump has promised to position the U.S. as a leader in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency if elected. Many traders view a Trump victory as bullish for the crypto industry, especially compared to Democrat Kamala Harris, who is seen as less crypto-friendly. According to Polymarket, Trump holds a slight edge, with a 59% chance of winning the election versus Harris’s 40%.