Trump's cryptocurrency sale fails at start: The website did not withstand influx of investors

Former U.S. President Donald Trump launched his cryptocurrency project, World Liberty Financial (WLF), but its debut proved unsuccessful. The project’s website was overwhelmed by user traffic and failed to handle the load, significantly limiting the sale of the token, named WLFI.

The launch was rocky from the start. According to CNBC, the WLF platform, led by Trump and his family, began selling tokens on Tuesday. A day earlier, project co-founder Zachary Folkman had stated that "over 100,000 people were added to the whitelist for [initial] investments." However, the WLF site experienced frequent and prolonged outages, which restricted the number of sales. According to blockchain platform Etherscan, by Tuesday evening, tokens were held in about 4,300 unique wallets, which is only 4% of the total registered buyers.

Throughout the day, users attempting to buy the token were frequently met with a message on the site: "We are under maintenance." Eventually, the platform reported that more than 532 million tokens had been sold at 15 cents each, representing less than 3% of the 20 billion tokens available for public sale. Experts note that this failed launch has been a significant reputational setback for Trump, who is running as the Republican candidate for the U.S. presidency, with the election just three weeks away.

Trump and his family had been promoting the project since August. According to the roadmap presented to investors and first published by The Block, WLF plans to raise $300 million, valuing the project at $1.5 billion during the initial sale. Additionally, 20% of the WLF tokens will be allocated to the founding team, including the Trump family and Folkman.

The WLFI token will be offered under Regulation D, allowing for capital to be raised without prior registration of securities with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). However, certain conditions must be met, such as limiting the volume of sales and offering tokens only to accredited investors with a net worth exceeding $1 million. Additionally, the project must complete the approval process within the DeFi ecosystem.

WLF representatives also announced that users would be able to take out loans, provide loans, and invest in cryptocurrency. However, the official white paper or business plan has yet to be released. It is only known that investors will have voting rights within WLF.

The cryptocurrency project wasn’t Trump’s only investment issue last week. On Tuesday, shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of social media platform Truth Social, fell nearly 10% by the market close after trading was temporarily halted due to a sudden drop in stock prices.