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The digital assets venture promoted by Donald Trump has hit a target of raising $1bn through token sales and has offered more to the public, as it capitalises on enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies backed by the incoming US president.
World Liberty Financial, a project backed by Trump and his three sons, said on Monday it had sold 21bn tokens, surpassing its aim at launch in October to sell 20bn, or $1bn worth.
WLF, which was set up in the run-up to the election by Trump’s longtime business partners and others, added that it would also make available a further 5bn tokens of the 100bn total supply “due to massive demand and overwhelming interest”.
The surge in demand for WLF tokens marks a sharp contrast to the patchy sales it experienced in the opening months since launch, and comes as the Trump family stepped up its foray into cryptocurrencies ahead of his swearing-in ceremony.
Over the weekend both Donald Trump and his wife Melania launched memecoins, which soared in value, while Eric Trump, an enthusiastic promoter of WLF, attended a crypto industry gala event in Washington to celebrate his father’s inauguration.
Trump eagerly courted the crypto industry on the election trail and executives have in turn warmed to him, believing that he will end the regulatory crackdown they faced under the Biden administration.
WLF has yet to lay out its plans. The coins give holders only limited voting rights and no economic rights, and cannot be traded or sold back to WLF.
Justin Sun, the crypto entrepreneur who bought and ate a $6mn banana artwork in November, said last week he had invested a further $45mn into WLF. The purchase by Sun, who is being sued by the US securities regulator for fraud and other securities law violations, took his total investment to $75mn.
Trump has already appointed several crypto-friendly names to top jobs, including Paul Atkins as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission and venture capitalist David Sacks in the new role of AI and crypto tsar.
In return, crypto companies and billionaires have provided financial backing to Trump, with stablecoin operator Circle and blockchain payments group Ripple among the companies that have paid into the inauguration committee. Bitcoin briefly notched up a new record high of more than $109,000 on Monday, before dropping back, on expectations that Trump will issue executive orders in the coming days that will boost the fortunes of the industry in the US.
However, many of the crypto market’s biggest names are concerned that Trump’s move into digital assets could be seen as seeking to extract value from supporters. The company that co-owns the Trump memecoin is affiliated with the Trump Organization, and will receive a share of trading revenues related to the token.
“Basically, we used to have an informal rule that presidents wouldn’t start or run businesses that could pose a conflict of interest,” said Nic Carter, a venture capitalist at Castle Island Ventures, on X.
The Donald Trump memecoin fell to $52 on Monday, down from the weekend high of $75. The Melania Trump memecoin, whose launch caused the Donald coin to briefly drop 40 per cent in value, was at $8.43, compared with Sunday’s high of $13.64.
Memecoins have no business model, cash flow or fundamental value, and do not give their owners a share of any physical asset, and rely on their popularity among traders for their value.
“A new chaotic crypto era is here,” Bernstein analysts wrote in a note, adding that Trump’s memecoin launch was “a massive paradigm shift” that “signifies a new regulatory era, where governments see crypto as a technology to reach out to the masses directly”.