More than two hours into Republican former President Donald Trump‘s World Liberty Financial launch event on X Monday night, the team behind the Trump family’s new crypto project finally unveiled a key detail: Who can buy the forthcoming tokens it plans to release, and how shares of the project will be allotted.
For over a month, the former president and his family have been pumping up the endeavor with vague descriptions, promising that it will do many things at once.
Lofty goals set by those involved in the project on Monday night’s X space suggest that World Liberty Financial will be a sort of crypto banking platform, where the general public will be encouraged to borrow, lend and invest in crypto.
There will also be an accompanying token called WLFI, founders said Monday.
The equity structure for these tokens will be that 20% of the project’s tokens are allotted to the founding team, which includes the Trumps, 17% of tokens are set aside for user rewards, and the remaining 63% of the coins will be made available for the public to purchase, said founder Zak Folkman.
There will be no pre-sales or early buy ins, Folkman added.
An earlier leaked draft of an internal project outline had the founders’ share at 70%, sparking concerns that the project would be little more than a get-rich-quick scheme.
The token will be a Reg D token offering, which follows the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation D — a provision that makes it possible for a company to raise capital without first registering their securities with the commission so long as certain conditions are met.
These were themes that Trump covered in a conversation format early on in the more than two hour event, as he spoke about the perceived hostility of the Securities and Exchange Commission towards the digital currency industry.
Several high profile figures in the industry take issue with SEC Chair Gary Gensler, claiming that he is regulating the industry through enforcement actions, rather than via rules.
Over the course of Trump’s 40-minute fireside chat at the top of the more than two hour livestream, he talked about how he “wasn’t overly interested” in crypto initially.
But that changed, he said, when sales of his Trump trademarked nonfungible token collections were paid for with crypto. “I think my children opened my eyes more than anything else.”
“Crypto is one of those things we have to do,” Trump said near the end of his remarks. “Whether we like it or not, we have to do it.”
Monday’s event came at an unprecedented moment for Trump’s presidential campaign.
On Sunday afternoon at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump and his longtime friend and political donor, Steve Witkoff, were between the fifth and sixth holes on the course when gunshots were fired. The FBI has characterized the incident as an apparent assassination attempt on the former president.
Witkoff is a longtime friend of Trump’s. He’s also part of the small group of World Liberty…
Read More: New details, including who can buy in
