Michelle Conlin
NEW YORK, April 15 (Reuters) – World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency business co-founded by President Trump and his son, released a new proposal on Wednesday that would prevent early investors from trading tokens for two years (80% of their holdings are currently locked up by the company), followed by an additional two-year vesting period, according to a statement posted on its governance forum.
The measure, which is due to be voted on within a week, means that early investors holding 17 billion tokens will not be able to trade all of them until 2030, one year after the president plans to leave office. “The proposal is designed to best ensure long-term participation in our ecosystem and help ensure healthy market supply,” World Liberty Financial spokesman David Wachsman said in a statement to Reuters.
The restrictions also apply to World Liberty tokens held personally by the project’s founders, including the president and his three sons, as well as an additional one-year vesting period and the deletion or “burning” of 10% of the tokens. However, it did not change the terms of the project’s token sale, which sends 75% of all new token proceeds to the Trump family. When asked if World Liberty would continue selling new tokens, Wachsman responded: “Please stay tuned to World Liberty’s official X account for the latest news.”
The new proposal comes amid complaints from investors who say the company froze their funds while withdrawing hundreds of millions of dollars for itself. According to a Reuters analysis, the Trump family has made more than $1 billion from World Liberty. Many early investors told Reuters they, too, had been hoping for a payday.
The company is facing increasing scrutiny from many investors, who have complained for months about its lack of transparency, centralized governance structure and failure to respond to community complaints, according to interviews with Reuters and posts on social media and WLF’s governance forum. Those who purchased tokens from the secondary market will not be affected by the new vesting proposal, although they must agree to lock their tokens for six months if they want to participate in governance votes.
Investors have also complained about big wallets having more say in voting decisions, as well as a new “supernode” investor level that offers those who lock up at least $5 million worth of tokens for six months “guaranteed direct access” to the WLF team. This privileged class of token holders appears to undermine WLF’s previous commitment to democratizing access to finance.
