Trump announces start of KYC process for World Liberty Financial 

If you are hoping to get on the WLFI whitelist and you live in the US, you must be an accredited investor

article-image

Former President Donald Trump lev radin/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Enrollment for the Donald Trump-backed crypto project is underway, the former president announced Monday. 

Details about World Liberty Financial, the DeFi project Trump and his family have been teasing for months, have been slow to emerge. 

Know-your-customer (KYC) verification has now begun, Trump said in a post on X Monday. At least, for some prospective investors. 

Because of “outdated” regulations, the whitelist is only available to accredited investors in the US, the project confirmed in the World Liberty Telegram channel Monday. A second whitelist will be available for “non-US persons.” 

Read more: Donald Trump touts new family DeFi project

“We’re fighting for changes so all Americans can access World Liberty Financial and join the financial revolution,” the statement said. 

In a livestream lasting nearly two and a half hours earlier this month, World Liberty founders said that the native token WLFI would soon come to market. They also revealed how the asset will be divided

WLFI’s distribution will be 20% to the founding team/Trump family, 17% toward “user rewards,” and 63% for public purchase. A leaked draft of World Liberty’s plans previously stated that 70% of tokens would be reserved for project leaders. 

The team behind the project includes Trump’s sons, Donald Jr., Eric and Barron. Chase Herro and Zachary Folkman are also involved. 

Herro, who describes himself as “the dirtbag of the internet” founded the now-shuttered crypto trading firm Pacer Capital. Folkman and Herro also collaborated on building Dough Finance, the Aave-based DeFi platform that was exploited over the summer for $2 million. 

The current KYC process asks users to confirm their country of residence, link their ethereum wallet, submit a proof of identification and complete a “liveness check.” 

Accredited investors, per Securities and Exchange Commission guidelines, are those with a minimum net worth of $1 million and individual income of $200,000. Couples can qualify with a combined income of $300,000. 

The requirement for US-based investors to be accredited was not mentioned during the Sept. 16 World Liberty livestream.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Hilton Park Lane

Tues - Wed, November 10 - 11, 2026

DAS London is a two-day summit at the Hilton Park Lane in London featuring conversations between the builders, allocators, and policy makers who are shaping the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the UK, Europe, and North America.

Marina Bay Sands Singapore

Wednesday, October 07, 2026

DAS Asia is a a single-day summit at Marina Bay Sands Singapore featuring conversations between the builders, investors, and global leaders are shaping the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in Asia & North America.

recent research

Black Generic.png

Research

Compute demand is two-sided, the precondition for any hedging market. Producers (neoclouds and independent data centers) fear their inventory clears below cost. Consumers (inference platforms and the agentic application layer) fear compute will get more expensive. The common read holds that nonfungibility keeps both off any general exchange, since a buyer wants a named SKU in a named region rather than a basket, so the trade stays bilateral and the only exchange users are dealers hedging their book. That describes launch conditions, but understates how commodity markets form. Canonical benchmarks get made through trading, and reservations standardize as the curve deepens. The dealer-intermediated structure is not the end state, it is the seed of one.

Newsletter

The Breakdown

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Blockworks Research

Unlock crypto's most powerful research platform.

Our research packs a punch and gives you actionable takeaways for each topic.

SubscribeGet in touch

Blockworks Inc.

133 W 19th St., New York, NY 10011

Blockworks Network

NewsPodcastsNewslettersEventsRoundtablesAnalytics