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A digital asset venture promoted by Donald Trump has reached its goal of raising $1 billion through a token sale and offered more publicity, as it capitalizes on enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies backed by the future US president.
World Liberty Financial, project supported Trump and his three sons, said Monday it had sold 21 billion tokens, surpassing its October launch goal of selling 20 billion, or $1 billion in value.
The WLF, which was formed 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 tremendous demand and tremendous interest.”
The surge in demand for WLF tokens is a stark contrast to the choppy sales it experienced in the first months of its launch, and comes as the Trump family ramps up its foray into cryptocurrencies ahead of his swearing-in ceremony.
During the weekend, Donald Trump and his wife Melania also launched memecoinswhose value soared as Eric Trump, an enthusiastic WLF promoter, attended a crypto industry gala in Washington to celebrate his father’s inauguration.
Trump eagerly courted the crypto industry on the campaign trail, and executives in turn warmed to him, believing he would end the regulatory crackdowns they faced under the Biden administration.
The WLF has yet to outline its plans. Coins give holders only limited voting rights and no economic rights and cannot be traded or sold to WLF.
Justin Sun, a crypto entrepreneur who bought and ate a banana worth 6 million dollars artwork in November, said last week that it had invested an additional $45 million in WLF. The purchase by Sun, which is being sued by the US securities regulator for fraud and other violations of securities laws, brought its total investment to $75 million.
Trump has already appointed several crypto-friendly names to top positions, including Paul Atkins as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission and venture capitalist David Sacks in a new role as AI and crypto czar.
In turn, crypto companies and billionaires have lent financial support to Trump, with stablecoin operator Circle and blockchain payments group Ripple among the companies that paid into the inaugural committee. Bitcoin briefly touched a new record high of more than $109,000 on Monday, before falling on expectations that Trump will issue executive orders in the coming days that will boost the fortunes of the US industry.
However, many of the biggest names in the crypto market are concerned that Trump’s move in the digital asset could be seen as a pushover extract value from supporters. The company that co-owns Trump’s memecoin is affiliated with the Trump Organization and will receive a portion of the trading revenue associated with the token.
“Basically, we had an informal rule that presidents wouldn’t start or run companies that might present a conflict of interest,” Nic Carter, a venture capitalist at Castle Island Ventures, told X.
Donald Trump’s memecoin fell to $52 on Monday, down from a weekend high of $75. The Melania Trump memecoin, whose launch led to a short-lived 40 percent drop in the value of the Donald coin, was at $8.43, compared to Sunday’s high of $13.64.
Memecoins have no business model, cash flow or underlying value and do not give their owners a stake in any physical assets, relying their value on their popularity among traders.
“A new chaotic crypto era has arrived,” Bernstein analysts wrote in a note, adding that Trump’s launch of memecoin is a “massive paradigm shift” that “marks a new regulatory era, where governments see crypto as a technology to reach the masses directly.”
