Former president Donald Trump took to social media this week to reveal the launch date of his organization’s widely-awaited crypto project – World Liberty Financial (WLFI) – which is now set to go live on Monday, September 16. In a video posted on X, Trump asked his followers to join X Spaces– a special room that can be created within the platform where creators can hold live conversations with their audience.

“We’re embracing the future with crypto and leaving the slow and outdated big banks behind,” Trump boldly commented about WLFI.

What is World Liberty Financial?

The project is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that will allow users to borrow and lend digital assets. A recently released white paper provided details about the features that will be available.

These include the option to store cryptocurrencies through a digital wallet, opportunities to borrow and lend cash, investment options, and non-transferable governance coins. The protocol is reportedly being built on the Ethereum blockchain with the assistance of Aave.

Trump highlighted that one of the key missions of this new project is to fuel the adoption of dollar-pegged stablecoins in the DeFi space. He emphasized that WLFI will focus on “making crypto and America great by driving the mass adoption of stablecoins and decentralized finance.”

This was interpreted as a strategy to maintain the dominance of the US dollar as the world’s leading currency by embracing digital assets and blockchain-based solutions that provide widespread access to the currency via tokenized alternatives with proven reserves.

Meanwhile, responding to concerns about the protocol’s safety, Trump emphasized that World Liberty Financial is working with the best security experts, including firms like PeckShield and BlockSecTeam, to make sure the code is thoroughly reviewed and any vulnerabilities are patched and addressed to protect users’ assets.

Trump’s Decision to Endorse a Business Project Ahead of the Election is Questionable

The timing of this announcement is interesting as we are just 50 days away from the US Presidential election. According to the prediction market Polymarkets, Trump has a 49% chance of winning the race after falling substantially following his poor performance in the first debate (against Harris).

A group of political analysts have raised questions about the nature and intention of the move as it is highly unconventional that a presidential candidate promotes a commercial project – and much less one tied to a sector where fraud is rampant – just weeks before the vote takes place.

Meanwhile, Rep. Maxine Waters, the highest-ranking Democrat in the House Financial Services Committee questioned the appropriateness of Trump’s announcement.

“While decentralized finance, or DeFi, aims to create greater efficiencies and transparency, it can also pose heightened risks of hacks, scams, unequal information and conflicts of interest that can harm consumers and investors,” Waters stressed.

She added: “We’ve seen this play out in the new DeFi venture that Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. plan to launch, called World Liberty Financial.”

Insiders Will Get 70% of WLFI Native Tokens

WLFI plans to raise as much as $540 million through the sale of its native token. This allocation would reportedly account for only 30% of the asset’s total supply, implying that insiders will maintain tight control over the project’s governance decision – a move that undermines the central purpose of decentralization.

Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump appear to be the leaders of this project as both teased the launch of World Liberty Finance back in August and participated in interviews with various media outlets to share their views about the DeFi space and the possibilities that it opened to disrupt the financial industry.

The Trumps and cryptocurrencies have had a troublesome relationship as there have been alleged ties between members of the family and seemingly fraudulent or scammy offerings. Some examples include meme coins like the DJT token, which was reportedly floated by Donald Trump’s youngest son, and a compromised DeFi protocol called Dough Finance whose code is remarkably similar to that of WLFI.

Meanwhile, on September 4, two Trump family members – Tiffany and Lara – had their X accounts hacked. The perpetrators took advantage of their large followings to shill a fraudulent token that was supposedly the native asset of the WLFI project. Although X moderators and the security team quickly caught the incident and blocked the accounts, the situation put the Trumps in the spotlight again as their popularity can be easily used to promote fraudulent endeavors that ultimately cause losses to investors.

Trump Went from Crypto Skeptic to Committed Supporter in Just a Few Years

Trump was a skeptic of the crypto world during his presidency, but his views seem to have shifted dramatically during this campaign as he is now a big promoter of the sector. He recently advocated for the creation of a strategic Bitcoin (BTC) reserve by the United States federal government and teamed up with a well-known crypto supporter – JD Vance – and appointed him as his running mate.

Why Trump changed his stance is not entirely clear, but political analysts speculate that the millions of dollars pledged by the sector to support candidates and initiatives that help the industry move forward and thrive could have persuaded him. Trump was also the first candidate in the history of the US to accept crypto donations.

He has promised to work with Congress to approve a comprehensive regulatory framework for the sector and fire the current head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, who has been significantly hostile to the industry during his tenure.

Trump’s announcement of WLFI has been welcomed with mixed reactions by top voices in the crypto space. Nic Carter, a partner at Castle Island Venture called the former president’s decision to endorse the project at this point a “huge mistake” as he believes that industry backers may turn their backs on him now that he has decided to publicly support his own business venture.

“It looks like Trump’s inner circle is just cashing in on his recent embrace of crypto in a kind of naive way,” Carter stressed.

Meanwhile, the project’s emphasis on supporting US-dollar-pegged stablecoins has also been questioned as these instruments are widely used for ill-gotten purposes like money laundering.

Without appropriate oversight, stablecoins help bad actors circumvent AML policies, make it difficult for authorities to trace criminals, and aid sanctioned nation-states to get access to the North American currency.

Trump’s “Modern” Projects Have Not Been a Success

As World Liberty Financial prepares for its launch, the project will probably face intense regulatory scrutiny, given its high-profile backing and the current regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies.

The volatile nature of the digital asset market poses risks for potential investors who need to be made aware of the potential for significant price fluctuations in a newly launched project like this.

The political consequences of Trump’s decision to endorse a crypto project so openly also remain to be seen. His rival, Kamala Harris, may opt to use this announcement as evidence that he is more interested in promoting his commercial ventures than helping US citizens prosper.

As the launch date approaches, all eyes will be on this controversial project, watching to see how it navigates the complex waters of finance, technology, and politics in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election.

As the project’s launch date approaches, it will be interesting to see how the media treats Trump’s ambitions. Some of the projects he has recently supported that appeal to younger audiences like Truth Social have not been as successful as he would expect.

Would this be the case for WLFI? The protocol brings nothing new to the table aside from being backed by Trump. However, only time will tell if he will manage to capitalize on his large fan base to propel the project’s popularity.