World Liberty Financial is an Ethereum-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol backed by Donald Trump and his family. The protocol announced plans to begin the sale of tokens on Tuesday, October 15, 2024. ^[1][2][3]

@WorldLibertyFi Token Sale goes live on Tuesday morning, October 15th! This is YOUR chance to help shape the future of finance - former president Donald Trump tweeted on Oct. 12^[4]

Overview

Initially announced as The DeFiant Ones, World Liberty Financial, Inc. (“WLFi”) states its aim to bring permissionless and peer-to-peer digital asset systems to its audience. WLFi is also launching the WLFi governance platform, a DeFi platform for $WLFI token holders to help shape the WLFi protocol through governance. ^[7]

"The WLFi protocol aims to become the one-stop-shop for DeFi across the globe. It is being designed and built by leading pioneers in the crypto industry. The WLFi protocol aspires to bring together leading technology in the blockchain industry with strategic partnerships and broad distribution channels built for mass adoption in order to redefine the landscape of DeFi" - the blogpost stated^[7]

World Liberty Financial is spearheaded by Zachary Folkman and Chase Herro, who worked previously on the DeFi platform Dough Finance, which saw $2 million of crypto assets drained through a July exploit. They are listed on the whitepaper as World Liberty Financial's head of operations and its data and strategies lead, respectively. ^[5]

Members of the Trump family, including Donald Trump, publicly supported the project on social media, with the former president titled "Chief Crypto Advocate". Two of his sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., are involved as "Web3 Ambassadors," while his other son Barron Trump is listed as "DeFi Visionary." ^[1][7]

A draft white paper seen by CoinDesk suggests that World Liberty Financial will sell 30% of the WLFI tokens generated, with the remaining 70% held by founders, service providers, and other team members. ^[6]

"WLFi believes that the promise of DeFi is permissionless access to peer-to-peer information and digital asset systems that are ultimately controlled by the DeFi community, including its users.

Many aspects of traditional finance move at a glacial pace. DeFi can help shatter this paradigm. On-chain transactions are final — no more pending states or unexpected reversals. DeFi operates 24/7, putting users in control of their digital assets around the clock. Through the WLFi token voting governance platforms, community members can shape the WLFi protocol." - WLFi's vision^[7]

On October 9, 2024, World Liberty Financial (WLFi) project submitted on the Aave governance forums a proposal to deploy an Aave v3 instance. ^[8]

"Through this proposed Aave instance, the WLFi protocol has the potential, if approved, to provide users access to one of DeFi’s pre-eminent, battle-tested, non-custodial, peer-to-peer, borrowing, and lending platforms." - the team wrote^[7]

This collaboration will aim to combine the peer-to-peer and permissionless lending and borrowing that forms the backbone of DeFi with the usability and UX of web2. ^[7]

WLFi Advisors

• Corey Caplan - Co-founder, Dolomite

• Alexei Dulub - Founder, PixelPlex

• Cryptogle - Cofounder, Glue

• Rafael Yakobi - Managing Partner, The Crypto Lawyers

• Luke Pearson - General Partner, Polychain Capital

• Sandy Peng - Cofounder, Scroll

• Matthew Morgan - CEO, Mixie Studios & Mixie Media

• Ryan Fang - Founder, Tomo Wallet^[9]