How Might Donald Trump’s Crypto Token Fit Into Regulations?

The
former
president
of
the
United
States
is
launching
a
crypto
yield
product,
even
as
he
appeals
to
the
crypto
industry
in
his
current
bid
for
office.
Donald
Trump
will
be
the
“chief
crypto
advocate”
for
World
Liberty
Financial,
a
venture
that
has
offered
scant
hints
so
far
about
what
it
will
actually
do.

You’re
reading
State
of
Crypto,
a
CoinDesk
newsletter
looking
at
the
intersection
of
cryptocurrency
and
government.


Click
here

to
sign
up
for
future
editions.

Crypto
is
trying
to
make
an
impact
this
election
cycle.
Now,
one
of
the
leading
contenders
for
President
of
the
U.S.
is
tied
to
a
forthcoming
crypto
venture.

There’s
one
pretty
interesting
question:
how
should
the
former
president
and
current
Republican
nominee
think
about
securities
and
anti-money
laundering
laws
as
he
prepares
to
lend
his
name
to
a
crypto
project?

Former
President
Donald
Trump
will
be
the
“chief
crypto
advocate”
for
World
Liberty
Financial,
a
project

seemingly
based
on
Dough
Finance
and
featuring
his
three
sons
and
a
host
of
other
individuals
in
key
roles,
according
to
scoops
by
my
colleagues
Danny
Nelson,
Cheyenne
Ligon
and
Sam
Kessler
this
week.

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.

I
want
to
focus
on
this
part,
as
it
raises
some
interesting
regulatory
questions.
Trump,
of
course,
has
spent
the
past
few
months
campaigning
to
crypto
voters,
making
promises
about
installing
industry-friendly
regulators
and
making
the
U.S.
the
“crypto
capital
of
the
planet”
in
various
public
remarks.

This
friendly
stance,
at
odds
with
his
opposition
to
crypto
when
he
was
actually
in
office,
may
end
up
benefiting
him
personally,
given
the
forthcoming
World
Liberty
Financial
launch.

The
major
caveat
here
is
that
CoinDesk
has
seen
draft
documents;
the
final
project
may
differ
from
what
CoinDesk
has
reported
on.

In
the
document
CoinDesk
did
view,
however,
one
common
refrain
has
been
that
a
70%
allocation
toward
existing
project
developers
is
relatively
large,
compared
to
other
crypto
projects.

The
white
paper
also
has
a
non-transferability
clause,
seemingly
to
prevent
resales
or
suggest
that
investors
can
profit
off
of
the
tokens,
at
least
at
launch.

This
alone
would
not
be
enough
to
bypass
securities
laws,
said
Dave
Rodman,
the
founder
and
managing
partner
at
Rodman
Law
Group.

“If
all
that
happens
is
that
people
buy
tokens
that
are
‘locked,’
nothing
has
been
done
to
reduce
exposure
to
US
securities
laws
if
Americans
purchase
the
token,”
he
said.

It’s
also
unclear,
at
least
so
far,
who
exactly
controls
the
wallets,
said
Alexandra
Damsker,
an
attorney
and
consultant.

How
the
70%
retained
is
broken
down
is
also
unclear
–
whether
each
developer
and
project
leader
will
receive
an
equal
allocation
or
not.

WLFI
is
a
governance
token.
Holders
with
some
yet-to-be-defined
minimum
number
of
tokens
can
propose
protocol
changes
or
other
suggestions,
and
all
holders
can
vote
using
up
to
5%
of
the
total
number
of
token
supply.
While
the
paper
suggests
this
will
“ensure
fairness
and
distributed
participation,”
any
aligned
group
that
holds
a
majority
of
tokens
may
be
able
to
influence
these
proposals.

The
white
paper
also
included
a
line
about
screening
purchasers
to
comply
with
sanctions
regulations.

The
project
will
be
a
key
target
for
attackers.

We’ve
already
seen
this,
when
X
(formerly
Twitter)
accounts
tied
to
Lara
(Eric
Trump’s
wife)
and
Tiffany
Trump
(one
of
Donald
Trump’s
daughters)
were
hijacked
this
week
to
shill
random
addresses.
Eric
Trump
tweeted
that
those
addresses
were
a
scam,
prompting
further
confusion
from
people
who
couldn’t
tell
if
this
meant
that
World
Liberty
Financial
itself
was
not
real
or
just
the
addresses
(to
be
clear:
World
Liberty
Financial
is
a
real
project;
those
addresses
were
not
part
of
it).

If
you’ve
got
thoughts
or
questions
on
what
I
should
discuss
next
week
or
any
other
feedback
you’d
like
to
share,
feel
free
to
email
me
at

nik@coindesk.com
or
find
me
on
Twitter

@nikhileshde.

You
can
also
join
the
group
conversation
on

Telegram.

See
ya’ll
next
week!