World Liberty Financial’s public sale for WLFI tokens to start Oct. 15
2024-10-12

World Liberty Financial, the DeFi project backed by former President Donald Trump and his family, will launch the public sale of its WLFI tokens on Tuesday.
"Big news! @WorldLibertyFi public sale starts Oct. 15th, open to everyone who qualifies through the whitelist. Join us for a Twitter Spaces on Oct. 14th at 8 AM EST to learn more. Stay tuned for updates!" the project said in a post on X Friday afternoon.
The project's roadmap says the “initial sale” of WLFI will look to raise $300 million. It will sell 20% of the token supply at a $1.5 billion fully diluted valuation, as first reported by The Block on Thursday. The project opened its whitelist on Sept. 30 and one day later said "thousands" had signed up.
As noted during a live stream last month, 63% of WLFI tokens will be sold to the public, 17% for user rewards and 20% for team compensation. WLFI is available to accredited investors within the U.S., qualified investors in the UK and investors outside those countries.
World Liberty Financial is led by co-founders Steve and Zach Witkoff, Zach Folkman and Chase Herro, aims to promote the widespread adoption of digital assets through a fully compliant, all-in-one platform for alternative finance.
In its first of three phases, WLF plans to launch a version of the DeFi lending platform Aave on both the Ethereum mainnet and Layer 2 network Scroll, enabling users to lend and borrow tokens such as bitcoin, ether and stablecoins. 
"According to its official governance proposal on the Aave forum, WLF’s Aave v3 instance will launch allowing users to borrow or lend ETH and WBTC tokens, as well as USDC and USDT stablecoins. Like Aave, depositors will earn interest from the fees paid by lenders. The team 'foresees onboarding assets that may not be compatible with the main market on Ethereum Mainnet, leveraging its ties to traditional finance and institutional investment,'" The Block reported on Tuesday.
Eric and Donald Trump Jr., the eldest sons of the Republican presidential candidate, first teased the DeFi project back in August. Crypto critics and advocates have said WLF does more harm than good.
"Prospects for enactment of crypto market structure legislation if Trump wins the election are lower if the Trump family launches World Liberty Financial," TD Cowen Washington Research Group's Jaret Seiberg wrote in a recent note. "This is because Democrats will be loath for political reasons to support any bill that is viewed as enriching the Trump family."
Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.
© 2024 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.