PORTLAND: Trump Inc’s much-trumpeted crypto foray – the WLFI token – launched Monday with ambitions of serving as the backbone of a new digital ecosystem.

Within hours, it was mired in the turbulence and instability that has long been the hallmarks of crypto trading.

The token, promoted by Donald Trump’s family and listed this week on leading exchanges Binance and Coinbase, is still changing hands about 25% below its launch price, and has a market value of around US$5.4bil.

The stumble followed a late disclosure that nearly 25 billion WLFI coins would circulate – far more than investors had expected – rattling confidence in the cryptocurrency.

It’s common for tokens to slide on their first day of trading as early holders take profits, though expectations for this high-profile debut had been lofty.

World Liberty Financial Inc – co-founded by Eric and Donald Trump Jr, with their father listed as “co-founder emeritus” – is the decentralised finance company that issued WLFI token.

Just before launch, the firm announced 25 billion tokens would be circulating, about five times the roughly five billion many investors had expected, with most of the 100 billion total supply still not tradable, and a lot of it held by insiders.

Directly or indirectly, the Trump family controls more than 20 billion WLFI tokens, according to the project’s website.

The disclosure showed billions of tokens would go to Alt5 Sigma Corp, a publicly traded crypto-payments firm that’s affiliated with many principals involved in World Liberty.

Alt5 recently agreeing to hold about 7.5% of WLFI’s total supply and raised US$1.5bil. Its board was recast to include World Liberty co-founder Zach Witkoff as chairman and Eric Trump as director.

Alt5’s shares dropped 29% on Tuesday, underscoring how closely the firm’s fortunes are now tied to WLFI.

Though the tokens it received are tradable, the company has said its aim is to accumulate rather than sell. The shares fell nearly 20% Wednesday.

To steady sentiment, World Liberty removed 47 million tokens, valued at roughly US$11mil, from circulation, through a process known as burning, the project said. And the firm has highlighted support from backers such as crypto billionaire Justin Sun.

The World Liberty team also proposed destroying some WLFI tokens received as fees, to reduce circulating supply.

The proposal has received broad support, but is yet to be officially voted on by WLFI holders.

“The WLFI launch has been a tremendous success,” said a World Liberty Financial spokesperson.

On World Liberty’s governance forum, some investors voiced frustration over the shifting numbers and ambiguity around who qualified as an “early supporter” and how much they could sell.

Online, traders noted circulating supply estimates ranging from 3% to 25%, adding to confusion in the hours after launch.

“Ideally, day one would be great,” said Morten Christensen, founder of AirdropAlert.com.

“Unfortunately, the team fumbled communication before launch and Twitter was against them, turning the day red.”

He said he is not selling his WLFI holdings and might buy more for a short-term trade.

Bruno Ver, another early holder, said he had planned to sell quickly but decided to wait.

“At this point I am not worried, just curious how the market will react and evolve in the longer run,” he said.

On X, Eric Trump pointed to premium to early round prices as evidence of strong performance, noting that WLFI traded well above those levels in its first days.

Sun also said he would not sell his WLFI tokens and promoted a yield product for WLFI holders.

WLFI is as much a branding exercise as a financial product, unfolding in one of finance’s least stable arenas.

Earlier this year Trump-promoted memecoin surged briefly on debut before crashing. Analysts say the true test will be whether World Liberty’s ecosystem takes hold beyond speculation.

Its stablecoin, USD1, already boasts a market value of about US$2.7bil, and the team has plans for lending, borrowing, and other services.

“Volatility on launch day is quite common,” said Dessislava Aubert, senior analyst at Kaiko.

“The recent proposal for a fee burn mechanism could generate short-term hype. However, long-term value depends on ecosystem adoption, particularly USD1, which drives WLFI usage and despite listing on major (centralised exchanges), USD1 faces steep competition in the stablecoin market.”

For now, given WLFI’s fully diluted value above US$20bil, it has been treated more generously than other comparable crypto projects, according to Lex Sokolin of Generative Ventures, a venture capital investment firm.

While most tokens tied to personalities or narratives can swing violently, WLFI has already been given the kind of reception usually reserved for more established, revenue-generating businesses, according to Sokolin.

“With those comps, WLFI has had a very kind reception from the market so far,” he said. — Bloomberg