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Trump family gets 75% of crypto coin revenue, has no liability, new document reveals

Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures at the Bitcoin 2024 event in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., July 27, 2024. 
Kevin Wurm | Reuters

Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures at the Bitcoin 2024 event in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., July 27, 2024. 

  • In a 13-page paper, Donald Trump's crypto project, World Liberty Financial, provided a high-level overview of how coins can get allocated.
  • The document indicated that an entity named DT Marks DEFI LLC, which is connected to the former president, is set to receive 75% of the net protocol revenues.
  • The remaining 25% of net protocol revenue is set to go to Axiom Management Group, or AMG, a Puerto Rico LLC wholly owned by project co-founders Chase Herro and Zachary Folkman.

Donald Trump's crypto project, World Liberty Financial, published a 13-page document Thursday that described its mission and how tokens can be allocated, and that indicated that the Republican presidential nominee and his family could take home 75% of net revenue.

In what it calls the "World Liberty Gold Paper," World Liberty Financial, or WLF, said the Trump family will receive 22.5 billion "$WLFI" tokens, currently valued at $337.5 million, based on the price of 1.5 cents per token at launch this week.

Trump, who's in a virtual dead heat with Vice President Kamala Harris as the election reaches its closing stages, has spent months pumping his crypto project, previously branding it as "The DeFiant Ones," a play on DeFi, short for decentralized finance.

On Tuesday, the project launched the WLFI token and said in a roadmap that it was looking to raise $300 million at a $1.5 billion valuation in its initial sale. As of Thursday, only $12.9 million worth of the token has been sold, according to its website.

The paper released Thursday shows that Trump and his family assume no liability. It indicates that none of them are directors, employees, managers or operators of WLF or its affiliates, and said the project and the tokens "are not political and have no affiliation with any political campaign."

WLF didn't respond to a request for comment. The Trump campaign referred questions to the Trump Organization, which didn't immediately responded to a request for comment.

Crypto projects typically release white papers before they launch their coins, offering a guide so that investors can learn more about the mission, goals and how future tokens get allocated. WLF's paper says that a Delaware-based company named DT Marks DEFI LLC, which is connected to the former president, is set to receive three-quarters of the net protocol revenues.

WLF bills itself as a crypto bank where customers will be encouraged to borrow, lend and invest in digital coins. The document released Thursday defines net protocol revenue as income to WLF from "any source, including without limitation platform use fees, token sale proceeds, advertising or other sources of revenue, after deduction of agreed expenses and reserves for WLF's continued operations."

Some $30 million of the initial revenue is earmarked to be held in a reserve intended to cover operating expenses and other financial obligations.

The remaining 25% of net protocol revenue is set to go to Axiom Management Group, or AMG, a Puerto Rico LLC wholly owned by Chase Herro and Zachary Folkman, two of the co-founders.

Folkman previously had a company called Date Hotter Girls and reportedly helped develop crypto project Dough Finance. Herro worked on Dough and launched another crypto trading business a decade ago called Pacer Capital, which appears to now be defunct.

AMG has agreed to allocate half of its rights to net protocol revenues to a third LLC called WC Digital Fi, which is an affiliate of Trump's close friend and political donor, Steve Witkoff, as well as to "certain of his family members." Witkoff's son, Zachary, is also listed as one of the co-founders of the project.

Folkman previously said just 20% of WLF's tokens would be allotted to the founding team, which includes the Trump family. The paper spells out the breakdown of anticipated coin allocation, with 35% of total supply allocated to the token sale, 32.5% to community growth and incentives, 30% to initial support allocation, and 2.5% to team and advisors.

The document specifies in the fine print that these "anticipated token distribution amounts are subject to change." It's unclear which categories include Trump and his family.

The paper calls Trump the "chief crypto advocate." His three sons are all "Web3 ambassadors."

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