Author: Aaron Wood, CoinTelegraph; Translated by: Deng Tong, Jinse Finance
The cryptocurrency company World Liberty Financial (WLFI), associated with the family of US President Donald Trump, first made a splash when it debuted late last year.
WLFI was launched on the eve of the presidential inauguration, causing a stir. Observers accused the project of preemptively reporting important crypto-related events like the White House crypto summit, potentially creating conflicts of interest.
Trump is in a unique position to influence the outcomes of his portfolio, but WLFI was also not immune to broader market trends, with token prices declining under significant macroeconomic concerns.
The Trump administration is about to reach its first hundred days. Here's the status of WLFI and how the president's crypto investments have been affected.
WLFI's "gold paper" features a praising image of Trump. Source: WLFI
Trump's Crypto Investment WLFI Project Founders and Ownership
WLFI was established on September 16 last year, when President-elect Donald Trump announced his entry into X. The company was guided by real estate mogul Steve Witkoff and his son Zach, with co-founders including crypto investor Chase Herro, who calls himself an "internet bastard", and social media influencer and former pickup artist Zak Folkman.
The Trump family also occupies a prominent position. President Trump is listed as the "Chief Crypto Advocate", while his sons Eric, Donald Jr., and Barron are "Web3 Ambassadors".
WLFI's leadership team. Source: WLFI
WLFI Token Sale
One of World Liberty Financial's first moves was to sell its own tokens. The first token sale began on October 15, 2024, selling 20 billion WLFI $WLFI at $0.015, earning the company approximately $300 million.
On January 20, 2025, the day of Trump's inauguration, WLFI announced a second token sale, citing "massive demand and keen interest". The company issued 5 billion tokens at $0.05, a 230% increase from the first sale. The second sale was completed on March 14, two months later, reaching its full target of $250 million.
According to the project's "gold paper", WLFI tokens will give holders voting rights on important matters affecting the protocol, such as upgrades. The expected token distribution is:
35% through token sales,
32.5% for incentives and community development,
30% for "initial supporters" distribution,
2.5% for "core team and advisors".
In total, WLFI raised $550 million in token sales. $WLFI is only for qualified investors and cannot be transferred or traded on exchanges according to terms and conditions. The token's listing date has not been announced.
WLFI's Portfolio
Besides token sales, WLFI also acts as a crypto fund, accumulating various tokens over the past few months. Specifically:
WLFI's portfolio contains multiple different assets, with 13 assets occupying the largest share at the time of writing. Most of its holdings are USDC, a USD-backed stablecoin, followed by Wrapped Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).
According to Arkham, the top 13 assets account for nearly $100 million of the company's $103 million portfolio. The remaining value is composed of dozens of other tokens, with some small tokens totaling less than $100,000.
WLFI holds $5 million worth of Aave Ethereum USDC (aethUSDC), meaning they provide USDC to the liquidity pool on Aave.
WLFI's portfolio contains eight cryptocurrencies, which are non-stablecoin assets purchased (not received through airdrops):
Wrapped BTC (WBTC)
Mantle (MNT)
Movement (MOVE)
Sei (SEI)
Avalanche (AVAX)
Tron (TRX)
Ondo (ONDO)
Ether (ETH)
Overall, WLFI's WBTC, SEI, and AVAX have performed the most successfully.
The first WBTC purchase occurred on December 18, when WLFI exchanged 103 WBTC for 103 cbBTC. About a month later, WLFI converted all assets to ETH. The fund began accumulating WBTC again, primarily using USDT, and sent it to Coinbase Prime in early February.
WLFI bought AVAX in a single transaction on March 15 and purchased nearly $6 million worth of SEI in three installments in February, March, and April.
Others have not performed as well. As of April 24, major investments in MNT, MOVE, ONDO, and ETH have experienced double-digit losses. MOVE was hit hard, with WLFI's total investment value dropping over 50%, losing approximately $2,100,000.
Considering the average purchase price of WLFI tokens and the current prices of its assets, the investment has averaged a loss of $4,280,000.
Notably, WLFI also deposited several early purchased tokens into Coinbase Prime in December and January.
Even before major actions began, the WLFI wallet gradually accumulated ETH. WLFI started acquiring large funds worth over $1 million from late November, continuing to do so every few days until December 21. Then, on January 14, it transferred all acquired ETH (including 3,700 ETH deposited in October) to Coinbase Prime.
Between January 19 and 21, it purchased nearly 57,000 ETH and continued acquiring until February 3, when it transferred most ETH to Coinbase Prime. Coincidentally, Eric Trump was promoting Ethereum on X at the time.
Conflicts of Interest and Stablecoins
The strange timing of WLFI's token transfers to crypto exchanges and Eric Trump's posts raised questions about the Trump family's ability to influence the tokens they hold.
At the end of March, a group of senators on the banking committee wrote an open letter urging regulators to consider WLFI's potential conflicts of interest, particularly the project's stablecoin USD1.
According to CoinMarketCap, USD1 was launched in early March and was trading on centralized exchanges Kinesis Money and ChangeNOW at the time of writing.
The senators were concerned that Trump is in a unique position to influence and benefit his own stablecoin project, especially with the upcoming congressional review of stablecoin framework legislation.
After Trump announced tariffs on "Liberation Day", the market crashed, and the president posted on the right-wing social media platform Truth Social, saying, "Now is a good time to buy!!", further raising concerns about insider trading and market manipulation.
Despite these concerns, the Trump administration's ties with cryptocurrency are strengthening. His government has withdrawn several high-level enforcement cases against cryptocurrency companies, and his allies in Congress are drafting legislation favorable to the industry.
Cryptocurrency companies seem confident about the project. On April 16, cryptocurrency market maker DWF Labs announced an investment of $25 million in WLFI and agreed to provide $150 million in liquidity.
