Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free
Your guide to what the 2024 US elections mean for Washington and the world
The digital assets company promoted by Donald Trump reached its goal of raising $1 billion through token sales and offered more to the public as it capitalizes on the enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies supported by the new American president.
World Liberty Financial, a project supported by Trump and his three sons, said Monday it had sold 21 billion tokens, surpassing its October launch goal of selling 20 billion, or a value of $1 billion.
WLF, which was created in the run-up to the election by Trump’s longtime business partners and others, added that it would also make available an additional 5 billion tokens of the 100 billion total supply “in due to massive demand and overwhelming interest.”
The increase in demand for WLF tokens stands in stark contrast to the uneven sales it has seen in the first months since its launch, and comes as the Trump family has ramped up its foray into cryptocurrencies ahead of its inauguration ceremony. inauguration.
Over the weekend, Donald Trump and his wife Melania launched memecoinswhose value soared, while Eric Trump, an enthusiastic promoter of WLF, attended a crypto industry gala in Washington to celebrate his father’s inauguration.
Trump enthusiastically courted the crypto industry during the election and executives in turn welcomed him, believing he would end the regulatory crackdown they faced under the Biden administration.
WLF has not yet presented its plans. Coins give their holders only limited voting rights and no economic rights, and cannot be exchanged or resold to WLF.
Justin Sun, the crypto entrepreneur who bought and ate a $6 million banana artwork in November, said last week that it had invested an additional $45 million in WLF. The purchase by Sun, which is being sued by the U.S. securities regulator for fraud and other securities law violations, brought its total investment to $75 million.
Trump has already nominated several crypto-friendly names to important positions, including Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, and venture capitalist David Sacks to the new role of AI and crypto czar.
In return, crypto companies and billionaires have provided financial support to Trump, with stablecoin operator Circle and blockchain payments group Ripple among the companies that contributed to the inauguration committee. Bitcoin briefly hit a new record high above $109,000 on Monday, before falling again, on expectations that Trump would issue executive orders in the coming days that would improve the industry’s fortunes in the United States.
However, many of the biggest names in the crypto market are concerned that Trump’s move into digital assets could be seen as an attempt to extract value from the supporters. The company that co-owns the Trump memecoin is affiliated with the Trump Organization and will receive a share of the trading revenue related to the token.
“Basically, we had an informal rule that presidents would not create or run companies that might pose a conflict of interest,” Nic Carter, a venture capitalist at Castle Island Ventures, said on X .
Donald Trump’s memecoin fell to $52 on Monday, down from a weekend high of $75. The Melania Trump memecoin, whose launch briefly caused the value of the Donald token to fall by 40%, was at $8.43, down from Sunday’s high of $13.64.
Memecoins have no business model, cash flow, or fundamental value, and do not give their owners any share in any physical asset, and rely on their popularity among traders for their value.
“A chaotic new era of crypto has arrived,” Bernstein analysts wrote in a note, adding that Trump’s launch of Memecoin “is a massive paradigm shift” that “signifies a new regulatory era, where governments consider cryptography as a technology to reach the masses.” directly”.