Trump's Dubious Crypto Scheme Falls Flat on Its Face Immediately After Going Live

Remember when Trump called crypto a "scam?"

Crash and Burn

The website of Donald Trump's cryptocurrency project, World Liberty Financial (WLFI), crashed within hours of launching sales of its token that is supposed to raise hundreds of millions of dollars, CoinDesk reports.

Spoiler: it's not making anywhere near that money.

The crash was due to heavy web traffic, according to WLFI advisor Sandy Peng, who told CoinDesk that "the team wasn't expecting this level of interest." Self-own, much?

But despite the flood of users, few actually opened their wallets.

Before the website went dark, Etherscan blockchain data showed just 3,000 unique wallet addresses held the Trump-backed WLFI tokens, per CoinDesk. As of Wednesday, it's climbed to a little over 9,300 unique wallet addresses — which is not even a tenth of the total number of whitelisted investors.

By selling the tokens, which are going for a measly $0.015 a pop, WLFI aimed to raise $300 million. Of the 20 billion tokens allocated for sale, however, only four percent have been sold, according to CNBC — or just $11.8 million worth.

Limited Appeal

Ironically, WLFI co-founder Zachary Folkman had bragged that "100,000 people" had whitelisted for the sale, sounding confident that this would reflect the number of people who would go on to buy the tokens.

"I think we're setting all sorts of new records in crypto," Folkman said in a livestream on X ahead of the launch, as quoted by CNBC.

Record lows, maybe. The poor sales are probably in part due to the restrictions surrounding the token, which is a Regulation D offering, CNBC notes, allowing WLFI to sell them without having to register with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The upshot is — despite Trump framing himself as some sort of working-class hero — only accredited investors with a net worth over $1 million and/or a salary upwards of $200,000 a year could shell out for the tokens.

In other words, think blue blood, not blue collar.

Broken Token

If Trump's foray into the crypto world is sounding kind of dubious, you wouldn't be amiss.

Last month, CoinDesk reported that WLFI cribbed its code directly from another crypto venture, Dough Finance, which lost over $2 million in a hack. It also hired four people who worked at the now-defunct firm.

Trump, who once called crypto a "scam," has also revealed markedly few details about how his crypto platform works.

WLFI technically hasn't shared a white paper, either, a document that meticulously lays out how the crypto venture is supposed to operate. Instead, it released — on the morning of the sale instead of ahead of time — a "gold paper," a bizarre, and largely meaningless moniker.

All told, Trump's dubious crypto scheme is off to a rough start. To meet its goals, it'll have to raise another $288 million.

More on crypto: Crypto Bro and Alleged Fraudster Appointed Leader of a Tiny “Micronation” in Eastern Europe