Trump-backed WLFI secretly sold 5.9B tokens, locked out early investors – Report
The Trump family profited $3 billion from its crypto empire, yet retail and early supporters continue to lose money.
World Liberty Financial, a Trump family-backed DeFi project, reportedly sold 5.9 billion WLFI tokens without informing the community.
According to a Bloomberg report, the recent controversial use of 5 billion tokens from the WLFI treasury to borrow $75 million was another way for insiders to cash out without waiting for years, like other early investors.
WLFI’s early investors are stuck
Amid these opaque sell-offs, however, early investors and founders will be locked out from selling their holdings for at least two years.
Besides, they will have to wait for an extra two or three years for linear vesting to recoup their investment, according to an ongoing token unlock governance vote.
Some early investors, like Tron founder Justin Sun, invested over $45 million into the token but have been blacklisted even from voting on the unlock proposal.
Other investors, who have about 80% of their WLFI holdings locked, must accept the unlock terms or forfeit their stash. Moreover, insiders who agree to the terms must burn 10% of their holdings.
The worst part is that the token’s value has declined by over 90% from its peak value of $0.33. In the past 30 days, it has fallen by over 45% and printed a new low of $0.052.
In other words, these investors are staring at losses, and tokens could even be worth less by 2028, at the end of Trump’s presidency.
Describing the situation, Eswar Prasad, a professor at Cornell University, said,
It is surreal to have the Trump family not only profiting off this financial venture that features glaring conflicts of interest but doing so in a way that blocks other investors from sharing in the gains.
Retail losses rise as Trump’s crypto empire hits $3B
According to the report, WLFI’s close associates, such as Alt5 Sigma, have pivoted to AI or are in the process of restructuring as the hype surrounding the Trump presidency fades in the sector.
Besides the WLFI 90% crash, the Official Trump memecoin [TRUMP] has shed 95% of its value. Similarly, Melania [MELANIA] has collapsed too.
Collectively, retail holders have lost $4.3 billion on these Trump-linked tokens, according to analyst Steve Rattner. On the contrary, insiders and whales have made over $1.6B in profits.
In fact, Trump’s crypto empire has been its biggest wealth multiplier, with a $3B profit in the past year.
Final Summary
- WLFI reportedly sold 5.9 billion tokens and facilitated insider cash-outs while early investors like Justin Sun remain locked for at least two years.
- Retail holders’ losses have topped $4B while insiders profit billions as the Trump-linked tokens fell +90%.
