Whitelist Over White House? Crypto Users Blast Trump After DeFi Project Update

World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the DeFi platform launched by Donald Trump's sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, has officially opened whitelists for individuals who are "ready to be DeFiant," but the business mogul drew flak on X after promoting the development.

In an announcement on X and Telegram, the project said the whitelists are "currently open to accredited investors in the U.S. and all non-U.S. persons."

Why are the Whitelists Limited?

WLFI explained that the reason why not all American citizens will be able to join the whitelists is "due to the outdated policies and regulations in the U.S."

The DeFi project, whose full details have yet to be revealed, promised that it will someday open whitelists for "the everyday American" since its mission was to provide financial freedom to everyone, regardless of their bank balance or economic backgrounds.

Who are Accredited Investors?

According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), accredited investors are gauged "based on wealth and income thresholds, as well as other measures of financial sophistication."

For starters, such investors need to have a net worth of over $1 million, "excluding primary residence (individually or with spouse or partner)." Individually, an accredited investor should also have an income of over $200,000 in each of the prior two years, "and reasonably expects the same for the current year."

There is also a very detailed "professional criteria" that the SEC uses to determine whether an American can be an accredited investor or not.

Trump Reaffirms Promise to MAGA with Crypto

The Republican presidential candidate has since promoted the WLFI whitelists website, saying he promises to "Make America Great Again, this time with crypto." He confirmed that the whitelists were only available for "eligible persons," drawing some negative comments from cryptocurrency users.

Crypto Experts, Users Issue Warnings

Prominent analyst Jacob King said he already knows how the project will end. "It's a giant scam," he said, adding that he feels bad "for the grifters around Trump encouraging him to do this stuff."

Software engineer Alex Cole agreed that WLFI is "another scam," while another user questioned Trump about "shilling a whitelist when you should be focusing on the White House." There are roughly 34 days left before the November elections.

Political commentator and crypto futurist Ed Krassenstein criticized Trump for supporting his family's business instead of backing decentralized tokens. "Everything you do is about yourself. You are so transparent," he wrote.

Another well-followed dubbed WLFI as a "Trump University-level scam," adding that it was packed with red flags "that suggest it's more likely to hurt the U.S. economy than help it." He was referring to earlier security concerns after the project's code was purportedly found to have striking similarities to that of recently-exploited Dough Finance.

Pro-Trump Users Push Crypto Agenda

Despite the majority of commenters on Trump's promotional post about WLFI, some of his supporters backed the GOP frontrunner's crypto agenda.

"America will be the crypto capital of the world under President Trump," wrote former investigative journalist Chuck Callesto.

The official account of the GUA memecoin said the team believes Trump will make a huge difference in crypto, while trader and streamer Follis said the ex-president is entering the crypto space "to save my bags."

Trump has increasingly said in recent months that he will support the growth of crypto and blockchain. However, there have also been questions about his motives and whether he will stay true to his promises for Bitcoin and crypto if elected.