World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance (DeFi) crypto project being promoted by former president Donald Trump and his sons, will only sell up to $30 million of its tokens in the U.S., Bloomberg reported on Saturday.
According to a notice filed by World Liberty with the U.S. regulators earlier this week, the firm “currently only plans” to sell $30 million worth of tokens in the country. While the company is based in Delaware, it is operated from Puerto Rico.
The company has tokens worth around $288.5 million for sale, which means the majority of the token sales—nearly 90%—will take place offshore. Less than 350 U.S. investors have bought the tokens so far.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which seeks to regulate tokens as securities, has made it difficult for companies to use token sales as a fundraising tool. World Liberty is utilizing an exemption called Regulation D to sell tokens to U.S. investors.
Regulation D allows U.S. companies to raise unlimited funds from an unlimited number of investors. However, the investors need to be institutions or wealthy individuals who meet certain criteria. For instance, individual investors need to have a net worth of over $1 million, excluding their homes.
Regulation D also imposes stringent requirements on companies. For example, firms are required to file a public notice that lists details of the offering, like the amount raised, the number of investors, and the principal officers and sponsors of the sale.
According to the filing, World Liberty has raised $2.7 million from 348 investors by selling tokens under Regulation D since Oct. 15.
While World Liberty’s filing mentions Trump and his sons, Don Jr. and Eric, it adds that their names are included for “informational purposes and does not reflect a determination” that they are officially promoting the offering. Trump and his sons have been promoting World Liberty as part of the DeFi drive to democratize access to financial services.
World Liberty’s token sales follow the launch of Trump’s fourth collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that depict the former president.
In a September interview, World Liberty co-founder Zachary Folkman said that any potential non-US token sale would take place under another exemption, Regulation S, which is available for tokens sold to non-U.S. investors. Regulation S has far fewer requirements than Regulation D but limits fundraising to foreign investors only.
