12:02 pm
What’s the story
World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency platform linked to former US President Donald Trump and his associates, has kicked off its sign-ups.
The team includes Trump’s sons and business partners.
They’ve pitched the platform as a way to liberate “the average American” from “the big banks and financial elites,” according to a post by Trump on Truth Social.
Platform details
World Liberty Financial’s mission and operations
World Liberty Financial has opened its whitelists, allowing US-based accredited investors and non-US individuals to kickstart the know-your-customer (KYC) verification process.
The platform aims to promote “mass adoption of stable coins and decentralized finance.”
Corey Caplan, an adviser for World Liberty Financial, revealed that it would “sell and otherwise distribute governance tokens called WLFI.”
Technical aspects
Platform’s foundation and token distribution
World Liberty Financial is said to be built on the Ethereum blockchain and Aave, a decentralized finance platform. It will mainly work through a “credit account system.”
CoinDesk got its hands on a whitepaper that shows 70% of WLFI would be held by the platform’s founding members, team, as well as service providers.
But Caplan later clarified that 63% of tokens would be sold to the public.
Investor eligibility
Accredited investors and US regulations
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) describes accredited investors as people with a net worth of at least $1 million, not counting the value of their main home.
They also need to have made at least $200,000 a year on their own, or $300,000 with a spouse/partner, for the last two years.
World Liberty Financial has pointed to “outdated policy and regulations in the US” as the reason for its whitelist limitation.