Trumps’ WLFI Sale Target Slashed By 90% Amid Weak Demand

World Liberty Financial, the DeFi protocol promoted by Donald Trump and his family, has drastically reduced its fundraising target after initial sales of its WLFI token fell short of expectations.

An Oct. 30 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reduces the token sale’s funding target by 90% to $30 million from $300 million.

This cutback follows lackluster demand and technical issues during the token sale’s initial rollout in October. The WLFI offering initially aimed to attract $300 million at a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $1.5 billion, selling tokens at $0.015 each.

The sale has netted $14.5 million so far, with only 972.56 billion or less than 5% of the 20 billion WLFI initially available to participants. World Liberty Financial claims 16,418 investors purchased WLFI so far.

In an Oct. 18 post, Galaxy Digital described World Liberty Financial as“more of an idea than a protocol,” pointing out that the project currently lacks both operational code and a detailed project roadmap.

“Details were scant leading up to the protocol launch and they remain so now,” said Thad Pinakiewicz, aresearcher at Galaxy Digital. “There has been no code released, no detailed project plan, just broad strokes of what the team plans to do with the project."

Aave deployment

World Liberty Financial seeks to launch a deployment of Aave v3, the largest DeFi lending protocol.

On Oct. 10, the project submitted a governance proposal to Aave, outlining plans to launch an instance of Aave v3. The protocol would initially support deposits and loans in the form of Ether, Wrapped Bitcoin, and stablecoins USDC and USDT. World Liberty Financial indicated that it may consider adding additional digital assets over time.

If the proposal is approved, the project plans to allocate 20% of the fees generated by the protocol and 7% of WLFI’s token supply to AaveDAO. The Aave community’s initial response has been positive, with feedback supporting the deployment so far.

Trump’s controversial revenue claim

A Trump-owned entity, DT Marks DEFI LLC, can claim 75% of “net protocol revenues” from WLFI token sales and platform fees.

Public documents reveal that Trump and his family, including sons Barron, Eric, and Donald Trump Jr., are listed as “Web3 Ambassadors” for World Liberty Financial, though they do not hold operational roles. Trump himself is designated as the project’s “chief crypto advocate,” a title that aligns more with promotional than managerial duties. As part of this role, Trump’s entity will also receive 22.5 billion WLFI tokens.

The remaining 25% goes to Axiom Management Group, a company owned by Chase Herro and Zach Folkman, World Liberty Financial co-founders who managed the now-defunct Dough Finance Protocol. According to the project's “gold paper,” this split extends to all future protocol revenues beyond basic operating expenses.