Donald Trump bets on World Liberty Financial, experts say it’s a red flag

Donald Trump and his sons are teasing the upcoming launch of a new crypto project that promises to leave “slow and outdated banks behind.”

Trump to launch World Liberty Financial 

The project, which is expected to launch Monday, Sep. 16, will be another victory for Polymarket participants, who have predicted that Trump will launch a coin before the November election. 

In a post on X, Trump said he is “embracing the future with crypto” and will speak during a “Twitter Spaces” event at 8 p.m. EST to commemorate the official launch of World LibertyFi.

Some crypto analysts are hyped. At least one observer expects the World LibertyFi token to jump “10x” over the next two weeks (see below). A Bloomberg report, however, warns that World LibertyFi has some major red flags.

It’s For Trump, Insiders

First, Chase Herro, an entrepreneur who has been involved in other crypto projects in the past, is in charge of it.

Herro’s last project was Dough Financial, a lending platform similar to AAVE (AAVE), JustLend, and Spark. According to DeFi Llama, Dough attracted a peak of $3.2 million in assets before an exploit siphoned over $2 million. It now has just $10,863 in total value locked and appears to be inactive.

The second red flag is that 70% of all World Liberty Financial’s tokens will be reserved to insiders, including Trump. While it is common for most tokens to go to insiders in the crypto industry, 70% is a big number. 

Crypto projects with big insider ownership is a big risk because their prices are vulnerable when they decide to sell their stakes.

Additionally, the network could have regulatory hurdles with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which considers these tokens as securities. It argues that the token buyers should have more information about the project and the people behind it. 

There is also the risk about competition in the lending industry, which has become highly saturated in the past few years. In addition to AAVE and JustLend, some of the most notable names in the industry are Morpho, LayerBank, and Fluid. Most of these ones have struggled to gain market share.

Meanwhile, most newly launched crypto projects are not doing well. Recently launched tokens like Notcoin (NOT), Pixelverse, and Wormhole (W) have dropped by over 60% from their all-time highs.

Trump mixes politics and business

Critics also question the logic of Trump’s spending precious campaign time promoting a money-making venture with just 50 days left until Election Day.

Crypto is just the latest product the former, twice-impeached president is selling. The other items include:

• Signed sneakers, with one pair reportedly selling for $9,000.
• Trump-branded bibles, essentially a reproduction of the King James Bible, retails for $59.99 plus tax and shipping. It’s believed to have generated $300,000 in total.
• He also reported making more than $12 million off of his series non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, featuring photoshopped images of the former president standing in front of various backdrops and garbed in costumes (i.e., sheriff’s hat and superhero cape).
• A photo book titled “Our Journey Together” sells for $100 on his website.

Data by Arkham shows that his crypto portfolio is worth over $5.7 million.

Whether Trump is promoting the event to fund his campaign or pay mounting legal debts is not immediately clear. In August, Trump’s campaign raised $130 million whereas Vice President Kamala Harris raised $361 million.

It’s worth noting that Trump received a fine of $464 million earlier this year in a civil case.

As for his company, Trump Media & Technology, the stock has dropped by almost 80% from its highest point this year and is hovering at its lowest point since the SPAC merger. Forbes now estimates his net worth to be $3.9 billion, down from over $7 billion earlier this year.