NEW YORK (AFP) – Former US president Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency platform had a faltering sales launch Tuesday, with only a fraction of its digital tokens that went on the market finding a buyer.
The Republican candidate announced in mid-September that he, along with his sons and entrepreneurs, would launch the platform named World Liberty Financial.
Some 20 billion digital tokens, priced at 1.5 cents each, were offered by the company — a total value of USD300 million — but just three per cent had been purchased by Tuesday evening.
The tokens can be used as cryptocurrencies and give buyers a vote on the platform’s governance.
Many observers blamed the low sales on technical problems, as the company’s website suffered outages earlier in the day.
World Liberty Financial will enable users to lend or borrow cryptocurrencies to or from one another, a service already offered by many platforms, one of the best-known of which is Aave.
During his presidency Trump referred to cryptocurrencies as a scam, but has since radically changed his position, presenting himself as a “pro-bitcoin president” if elected in November.
