Open the White House Watch newsletter for free
Your guide to what the 2024 US elections mean for Washington and the world
A digital asset project promoted by Donald Trump has achieved a goal of raising $1 billion through token sales and has given more to the public, as it benefits from enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies backed by the incoming US president.
Global Financial Freedom Project Supported Trump and his three sons' company said Monday it had sold 21 billion tokens, surpassing its goal at its launch in October to sell 20 billion, or $1 billion.
WLF, which was created in the run-up to the election by Trump's longtime business partners and others, added that it would also make an additional 5 billion tokens available out of a total supply of 100 billion “due to overwhelming demand and overwhelming interest.”
The surge in demand for WLF tokens represents a sharp contrast to the erratic sales seen in the first months since their launch, and comes as the Trump family intensifies its foray into cryptocurrencies ahead of the swearing-in ceremony.
Over the weekend, both Donald Trump and his wife Melania divorced com. memecoinswhich rose in value, while Eric Trump, an ardent WLF promoter, attended a cryptocurrency industry event in Washington to celebrate his father's inauguration.
Trump was eagerly courting the cryptocurrency industry during the campaign, and executives in turn warmed to him, believing he would end the regulatory crackdown they faced under the Biden administration.
The WLF has not yet made its plans. Coins give their holders only limited voting rights and no economic rights, and cannot be traded or sold back to the WLF.
Justin Sun, cryptocurrency entrepreneur He bought and ate a banana worth $6 million In November, he said last week that he had invested another $45 million in WLF. The purchase by Sun, who is being sued by the US Securities Exchange Commission for fraud and other securities law violations, brought his total investment to $75 million.
Trump has already appointed several crypto-friendly names to top positions, including Paul Atkins as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and venture capitalist David Sachs in the new role of AI and cryptocurrency czar.
In return, cryptocurrency companies and billionaires have provided financial support to Trump, with stablecoin operator Circle and blockchain payments group Ripple among the companies that paid money to the inauguration committee. Bitcoin briefly rose to a new record high of more than $109,000 on Monday, before retreating, amid expectations that Trump will issue executive orders in the coming days that would boost the fortunes of the US industry.
However, many of the biggest names in the cryptocurrency market are concerned that Trump's move into digital assets could be seen as seeking… Value extraction Of supporters. The company that owns the Trump memecoin is affiliated with the Trump Organization, and will receive a share of the trading revenue related to the token.
“Basically, we used to have an informal rule that presidents wouldn't start or run businesses that could pose a conflict of interest,” Nick Carter, a venture capitalist at Castle Island Ventures, said on X.
Donald Trump's memecoin fell to $52 on Monday, down from the weekend high of $75. Melania Trump's Memecoin, the launch of which briefly caused the value of Donald's coin to drop by 40 percent, was at $8.43, compared to Sunday's high of $13.64.
Memecoins have no business model, cash flow, or underlying value, do not give their holders a stake in any physical asset, and rely on their popularity among traders for their value.
“We have arrived at a new era of disruptive crypto,” Bernstein analysts wrote in a note, adding that Trump’s launch of the memecoin “is a massive paradigm shift” that signals a new regulatory era, in which governments see cryptocurrencies as a technology to reach the masses. directly”.