World Liberty Financial, recently endorsed by Donald Trump, has informed the SEC of a drastic reduction in its fundraising goal from an initial $300 million to just $30 million, indicating a 90% cut from its original target. The company now intends to sell only up to $30 million in tokens before halting sales, as stated in their filing. This announcement follows a lackluster performance on the first day of token sales.
Since allowing accredited investors to purchase tokens two weeks prior, only 97,250 tokens have been sold, leaving over 19 billion WLFI tokens unsold. Data from Arkham Intelligence reveals that the project has only garnered around $14 million in cryptocurrency from buyers. The token sale event faced technical issues, including website crashes, raising further concerns.
Despite Trump’s claims that the DeFi project could revolutionize finance, analysts speculate that trust issues may be behind the tepid interest. Questions have been raised about the project’s underlying protocol, which has yet to materialize, and its code bears striking similarities to Dough Finance, which suffered a significant exploit earlier this year. Many believe that the stringent requirements for token buyers—a designation for accredited investors—further alienate potential middle-class investors, indicating a misalignment in the project’s fundamentals.
