Anthony Scaramucci: Donald Trump's New Crypto Coin Is a 'Full-On Scam'

Anthony Scaramucci, SkyBridge Capital's managing partner, has criticized Donald Trump's recently launched DeFi token World Liberty Financial (WLFI).

Anthony Scaramucci, managing partner of SkyBridge Capital, has slammed Donald Trump's recently launched decentralized finance (DeFi) token, describing it as a "scam."

Speaking at the Stellar Meridian conference in London on Monday, Scaramucci said that Trump's World Liberty Financial (WLFI) token is "nonsense" and a "transparent scam." He also questioned whether the former president's crypto venture would help him gain traction among crypto-focused voters.

"This is a money scam. It's clear as day. They're trying to funnel this into other uses. Don't participate in this nonsense. It's a scam. Full stop," Scaramucci said.

"No serious maximalist is going to look at this and say, 'Oh, this is a positive feature in Donald Trump's campaign to get elected.' This is a negative feature."

Scaramucci's comments come as Trump aims to raise $300 million by selling 20% of WLFI tokens in a presale. The token has a fully diluted valuation of $1.5 billion.

According to Trump, the WLFI token sale presents an opportunity to "shape the future of finance." However, his critics have argued that the high valuation and lack of clear utility suggest that the token is more like a campaign tool than a serious crypto project.

Meanwhile, several prominent figures in cryptocurrency have voiced their concerns about Trump's latest crypto venture. Among them is billionaire investor and entrepreneur Mark Cuban.

While Cuban refrained from a detailed critique, he expressed his disbelief at Trump's actions. He wondered why the GOP candidate would pursue this move when he has prominent backers like Elon Musk supporting him financially.

According to Dogecoin founder Billy Markus, Trump engaging in a token sale is the most unreasonable thing to do as someone seeking a U.S. presidency.

"VCs and crypto bros are enthusiastic about Trump's new crypto coin, but it's making sense to almost no one else. Especially not crypto maximalists. Like, what the hell is this supposed to help with, to get people excited about Trump? It's not working at all. Everyone seems to hate it," Markus said in a tweet on Friday.

"I can't believe Trump is doing a token sale and his supporters are eating it up. Dude is really out here scamming people in plain sight and they just don't care. It's mind boggling. Dude is selling you a participation trophy in his grift and you're lining up to buy it. Wild," Cuban tweeted on Thursday.

"Why would he do it ? He has Elon writing him checks. What’s the point ?" Cuban added in a follow-up tweet.

Similarly, Alex Miller, CEO of the Web3 platform Hiro, called the WLFI token sale an "obvious pump scheme." Miller highlighted that the project risked setting back the credibility of the crypto community by years.

"This is the most anti-crypto thing a U.S. presidential candidate could possibly do. Everyone in crypto should be speaking out against this. It will set us back years in the eyes of the public. Even if this doesn't end up being a scam, it's still the worst thing to happen to crypto in a long time," Miller said in a tweet on Friday.

"I don't think I've ever seen something so tone deaf and harmful to crypto being met with such apathy from the community. This isn't a joking matter. We're talking about the future of crypto here. Pay attention and speak up," Miller added in another tweet.

Data from the on-chain analytics platform Lookonchain shows that the WLFI token has already sold over 833 million tokens, generating $12.5 million in sales. With more than 10,000 users participating, the largest buyer, identified only as "0x2d24," spent 351.3 Ethereum, which is equivalent to $903,000, to purchase 60.43 million WLFI tokens.