Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s DeFi project, World Liberty Financial (WLFI) has launched its token sale.
The public sale started today and was open exclusively to participants who have qualified through a whitelist process that kicked off in September.
The project sold over 220 million tokens to more than 1,700 unique wallets within the first 20 minutes.
Despite a series of website outages during the rollout, nearly 2,900 investors managed to acquire 344 million tokens within the first hour.
Due to regulatory constraints in the U.S., the sale is limited to accredited investors, as defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
To qualify, investors must have a net worth over $1 million (not counting their home) or an annual income of at least $200,000 (or $300,000 with a spouse) for the past two years.
The WLFI coin is the governance token for the DeFi platform, which enables investors to borrow, lend, and earn interest.
Trump and his team have set an ambitious goal of raising $300 million, with 100,000 accredited U.S. investors already whitelisted ahead of the launch.
The WLFI token stands apart from traditional cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin because it is non-transferable and doesn’t generate any yield.
Moreover, 63% of the total token supply is reserved exclusively for accredited investors, restricting access to a select group.
The DeFi project is fronted by Eric Trump, Donald Trump’s son, and was first announced in August. Eric Trump referred to World Liberty Financial as "digital real estate," positioning the Ethereum-based project as an ambitious competitor in the DeFi space.
In a recent blog post, World Liberty Financial stated its goal to become a global "one-stop shop for DeFi," competing with established decentralized platforms like Uniswap.