Trump-linked World Liberty targets real estate as crypto slides
Real estate has been slower to move on-chain than other assets
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[PORTLAND] World Liberty Financial, the crypto project listing US President Donald Trump as “co-founder emeritus”, is planning to tokenise loan revenue interests in a Trump resort in the Maldives that’s in development.
The project and its partners plan to tokenise revenue interests from loans related to the Trump International Hotel & Resort as part of a broader strategy to design and distribute World Liberty-branded tokenised real-world asset offerings, the company said.
The announcement was made at World Liberty Forum, a conference held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and residence in Palm Beach, Florida, on Wednesday (Feb 18). The forum’s speakers include Goldman Sachs chief executive officer David Solomon, Coinbase Global CEO Brian Armstrong, as well as Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.
Tokenisation is the process of representing assets such as bonds, stocks, art or even ownership revenue from hotel projects as digital tokens. Anyone who owns the token owns the asset or the revenue streams. Ownership can be moved easily and almost instantly by simply moving it from one crypto wallet to another. It allows assets to be broken down into smaller parts, potentially widening the pool of ownership and easing the ability to trade.
The Maldives project – announced in November – is the latest step in a broader push by the family into crypto – one that now spans meme coins, NFTs, a stablecoin and a Bitcoin mining operation that have generated both immense paper profits and controversy for the Trumps. The expansion has kept going even as some of the ventures have lost money for a cohort of ill-timed investors.
In recent months, the market has turned. World Liberty’s WLFI token has lost more than half its value since becoming tradable last year. Bitcoin peaked in October before falling roughly 50 per cent – and the broader industry is bracing for a prolonged downturn. The Trumps are adding new products into a market that has already erased substantial gains.
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Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal reported that an Abu Dhabi royal signed a secret deal with the Trump family to buy a 49 per cent stake in World Liberty for US$500 million four days before Trump’s inauguration last year. A World Liberty Financial spokesperson has said that neither President Trump nor Steve Witkoff, his Middle East emissary, had any involvement in the transaction and have had no involvement in World Liberty Financial since taking office. An Abu Dhabi fund also used World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin to buy a stake in crypto exchange Binance.
World Liberty issues the USD1 stablecoin, which has a market value of about US$5 billion. The project has also rolled out WLFI Markets, a new lending-and-borrowing marketplace where token holders can use their coins as collateral. A mobile app is expected later this year, along with a debit card that would let users spend its stablecoin and earn loyalty points.
Trump International Hotel & Resort, Maldives, is being developed by Dar Global, created in collaboration with The Trump Organization, and is scheduled for completion in 2030. The resort will feature about 100 ultra-luxury beach and overwater villas. Investors in the token should get both a fixed yield and loan revenue streams, World Liberty said. The token will be offered to verified accredited investors in a private placement.
The resort’s loan revenues are being tokenised in partnership with Dar Global and Securitize, the platform BlackRock uses for its on-chain money-market fund. Tokenised stocks launched broadly last year as well. Dar Global is the London-listed unit of a Saudi Arabian developer.
Real estate has been slower to move on-chain than other assets. Secondary market liquidity is thin, regulatory clarity is limited, and some investors have lost money to outright fraud. So far, just 57 properties worth a combined US$356 million have been tokenised globally, according to tracker rwa.xyz.
In October, World Liberty co-founder Zach Witkoff said that he wants to make the Trump family’s real-estate portfolio available as tokens on blockchain to give access to a wider pool of investors. Zack Witkoff is the son of Steve Witkoff. The Trump family’s real-estate business includes golf courses and luxury hotels around the world. BLOOMBERG
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