Trump’s new $WLFI coin: scam or should we invest?

One day after another failed assassination attempt on him, former US President Donald Trump promoted a new project from his Mar-a-Lago estate, namely a cryptocurrency called $WLFI (which stands for World Liberty Financial).

Although there is still no official launch date and you will probably only be able to buy the coin in the United States at first, American media are already warning that it looks like a scam because most of the coins are held by a small group of investors and the ‘development’ team is set to receive most of the rewards. The New York Times called the project almost immediately a scam.

Businessman

Say what you want about Donald Trump, but as the presenter of a popular television program (The Apprentice) for several decades, he knows better than anyone else how to play the camera. He has been a shrewd businessman for over forty years now.

BREAKING: Donald Trump is issuing a governance token for his project: “WLFI.”

They are reportedly limiting purchasing to accredited investors only.

— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) September 17, 2024

So it was somewhat logical that Donald Trump would, given it’s popularity among youngsters, also embrace crypto.

In the first six months of this year, the crypto media often talked about memecoins which refer to Donald Trump such as Pepe, Maga, Tremp, Pepe Trump and DJT (the latter quickly turned out to be a scam).

Chief Crypto Advocate

Since the beginning of August, Trump has been talking about his World Liberty Financial project (there were even two earlier scams reported in relation to the website), knowing that his followers will buy whatever he promotes.

“Crypto is one of those things we have to do,” Donald Trump said on X. “Whether we like it or not, I have to do it.”

His own family is also listed in the official company charter. Sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. are both  ‘web3 ambassador’, Trump himself is ‘chief crypto advocate’ and his youngest son Barron becomes ‘DeFi visionary’.

Trump token “WLFI” is limiting purchasing to ACCREDITED INVESTORS ONLY. Thus defeating the entire purpose of Crypto being the market for everyone. 😂

— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) September 17, 2024

The problem is that it is already clear from the White Paper that about 20% of the proceeds (an incredibly high number) from the project will go to the ‘team’ behind the coin. At the moment it looks a bit like the setup of a pump-and-dump, but with Trump you of course never know.