Donald Trump's DeFi project is being spearheaded by family members and close friends. World Liberty launched its token sale on Tuesday. The venture arouses controversy and doubts.
Donald Trump's crypto embrace is complete.
The one-time crypto critic, former president and current Republican presidential candidate has done more than endorse the industry's goals in Washington, DC.
Now, he and his sons have launched World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance project to lend dollar-pegged stablecoins.
Like many of Trump's business endeavors, World Liberty is in a whirlwind of doubt and promise. The venture has a motley crew of figures, some well-known in crypto circles, others not so much.
So, who's riding shotgun on Trump's odd defy wagon?
Donald Jr., Eric & Barron Trump
“Gold Paper” of World Liberty Lists Trump and his three sons — Donald Jr., Eric and Barron — are members of the project's support team.
The former president is listed as chief crypto advocate, while his sons are known as Web3 ambassadors. An earlier draft of the gold paper listed the 18-year-old Baron as a “DeFi visionary.”
Trump's youngest son was once linked to a family-themed memecoin called DJT. Convicted investment manager and social media influencer Martin Shkreli allegedly created DJT, a memecoin based on Barron Solana.
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Barron's link to the project has never been established, and he has not commented publicly on the matter. In August, unidentified players “hardened” or withdrew, leaving most of the liquidity of DJT's token with worthless assets to investors.
Eric Trump, executive vice president and trustee of the Trump Organization, is one of the leading promoters of the project along with his brother. Donald Trump Jr
The siblings first started teasing the project on social media Posts In August.
Eric is no stranger to his father's history Blurring the lines Between family affairs and finances. He is Signed Reimbursement checks to former Trump lawyer and Michael Cohen who handled the infamous Stormy Daniels hush money payments.
In June, a New York state jury convicted Donald Trump of illegally covering those payments as business expenses.
As for the Trump sons' practical experience in crypto, there is little. Still, the former president Said They changed their minds about the industry's potential.
Chase Hero and Zachary Folkman/Dow Finance
World Liberty is a fork of a defunct DeFi project called Dow Finance, and it runs on DeFi's largest lending protocol, Aave.
Forks are not uncommon in DeFi but Dow Finance was extorted for $2.1 million this summer. The attack occurred after developers failed to code a way for a smart contract to verify the actions of users trying to connect to another protocol.
Several Dow Finance developers are behind World Liberty, including Chase Hero, aka “Hero” and his frequent collaborator Zachary Folkman, as well as blockchain developer Bogdan Poornavel, who goes by the online moniker 0xboga.
Folkman and Hero are listed as co-founders, along with New York real estate magnate Steven Witkoff.
Herro, a self-styled “dirtbag of the Internet,” has a colorful background filled with several failed Internet ventures, including the crypto trading platform Pacer Capital. According to Bloomberg NewsHe said he made a fortune in internet advertising and dealt marijuana as a teenager.
The Witkoff Family
Steven Witkoff is a longtime friend and donor to Donald Trump $2 million to his campaigns. Witkoff's sons, Alex and Jack, are listed as co-founders of World Liberty.
Witkoff describes Chase Hero and Zachary Folkman as “exceptionally bright people” in X Space live streaming to promote the project last month. He also said that World Liberty has been in development for “nine months”.
Additionally, World Liberty counts on an entourage of advisors drawn from venture capitalists, lawyers and blockchain engineers.
Sandy Peng, co-founder of the Ethereum layer-2 blockchain Scroll, is one of the project's advisors, as is Polychain Capital General Partner Luke Pearson.
World Liberty has launched a token sale to accredited investors on Tuesday.
Onchain data shows more than currently 9,000 Ethereum wallet addresses WLFI token holders.
Osato Awan-Nomayo Our Nigeria based DeFi representative. He covers DeFi and technology. To share tips or information about articles, please contact him here [email protected].
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