Trump-backed World Liberty Financial opens whitelist

Donald Trump, former US President and once again a presidential candidate for November’s election, is back in the news with his World Liberty Financial crypto coin. The DeFi project is reportedly endorsed by the Trump family and being built on the Ethereum blockchain. 

Critics in the crypto ecosystem say the project is similar to the DeFi lending protocol Aave and that the associated ambassadors and executives have been associated with crypto projects previously. 

World Liberty Financial made an official announcement to inform users of the open whitelist for accredited investors based in the US and overseas. An accredited investor is one who typically makes at least $200,000 per year in income and has a liquid net worth of at least $1 million. This means that only wealthy individuals can currently join the whitelist. 

While the project uses the term “everyday American” to describe the users who can access the platform, the criteria limits the list to millionaire investors. 

World Liberty Financial opens door to wealthy accredited investors

A whitelist helps users to get early access to the offerings of a project. Donald Trump-backed World Liberty Financial made the announcement through an official tweet on X:

A whitelist offers access to the project’s features and offerings for approved participants. The announcement reads:

While these whitelists are currently open to accredited investors in the US and all non-US persons, we are not turning our backs on the everyday American. Our mission is to bring financial freedom to everyone, no matter their background or bank balance.

The officials behind World Liberty Financial slam what they call outdated regulations in the US and say that they want all Americans to be able to use the platform in the future. 

According to a Coindesk report, World Liberty Financial appears to be a fork of the recently hacked Dough Finance project. Both these projects rely on Aave protocol for lending and borrowing. 

The team includes key members from Dough Finance, Zachary Folkman, Chase ‘Hero’ Herro, Octavian Lojnita, and another executive known by the pseudonym “0xboga”. The Coindesk report cites screenshots obtained from the since-deleted code for the project that shows striking similarities with Dough Finance. 

The project recently confirmed its WLFI token in a Spaces conversation on X. The project’s governance token will be non-transferable and not earn yield, so these factors make it exempt from the SEC’s securities laws. 

By limiting access to accredited investors, the project qualifies for the SEC exemption and traders await further information on where the token will be listed, how to buy it and what percentage of the token’s total supply will be sold to the public or investors.