Trump announces start of KYC process for World Liberty Financial 

If you are hoping to get on the WLFI whitelist and you live in the US, you must be an accredited investor

article-image

Former President Donald Trump lev radin/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Enrollment for the Donald Trump-backed crypto project is underway, the former president announced Monday. 

Details about World Liberty Financial, the DeFi project Trump and his family have been teasing for months, have been slow to emerge. 

Know-your-customer (KYC) verification has now begun, Trump said in a post on X Monday. At least, for some prospective investors. 

Because of “outdated” regulations, the whitelist is only available to accredited investors in the US, the project confirmed in the World Liberty Telegram channel Monday. A second whitelist will be available for “non-US persons.” 

Read more: Donald Trump touts new family DeFi project

“We’re fighting for changes so all Americans can access World Liberty Financial and join the financial revolution,” the statement said. 

In a livestream lasting nearly two and a half hours earlier this month, World Liberty founders said that the native token WLFI would soon come to market. They also revealed how the asset will be divided

WLFI’s distribution will be 20% to the founding team/Trump family, 17% toward “user rewards,” and 63% for public purchase. A leaked draft of World Liberty’s plans previously stated that 70% of tokens would be reserved for project leaders. 

The team behind the project includes Trump’s sons, Donald Jr., Eric and Barron. Chase Herro and Zachary Folkman are also involved. 

Herro, who describes himself as “the dirtbag of the internet” founded the now-shuttered crypto trading firm Pacer Capital. Folkman and Herro also collaborated on building Dough Finance, the Aave-based DeFi platform that was exploited over the summer for $2 million. 

The current KYC process asks users to confirm their country of residence, link their ethereum wallet, submit a proof of identification and complete a “liveness check.” 

Accredited investors, per Securities and Exchange Commission guidelines, are those with a minimum net worth of $1 million and individual income of $200,000. Couples can qualify with a combined income of $300,000. 

The requirement for US-based investors to be accredited was not mentioned during the Sept. 16 World Liberty livestream.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research

article-image

Jack explored the various AI and memecoin projects that have sprung up over the past month

article-image

If gold remains steady today, a single move from bitcoin to $98,500 would do it

article-image

Revenue estimates for the third quarter come in at $33 billion, which would be an 83% increase from the prior year

article-image

Senator Cynthia Lummis hopes a US strategic bitcoin reserve can be teed up for “adoption in 2025”

article-image

As EIP-4844 “blobs” transform the economics of Ethereum layer-2s, a growing debate pits long-term scalability against immediate ETH value

article-image

Prosecutors argued that FTX co-founder Gary Wang cooperated in their case against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried