Duke University law lecturer Lee Reiners stated that World Liberty Financial, a project associated with the Trump family, may have its governance token WLFI classified as an unregistered security.
He pointed out that although the project defines WLFI as a governance token, its issuance method, marketing approach, and investors' expectation of profits align with the criteria of the "Howey Test" used by the SEC to determine securities.
Furthermore, the large-scale pre-sale of WLFI before the protocol's official launch, along with its promotion leveraging the Trump brand, is also seen as reinforcing its "investment-type" characteristics.