WLF?? Understanding the Trumps' World Liberty Financial

Eric Trump, son of Donald and one of the nine co-founders pictured on the company’s website, had this to say at a recent crypto conference in reference to the firm:

“We’re literally trying to get cryptocurrency to the masses, we’re trying to bring hospitality to cryptocurrency and more and more people are finding their inroads into being able to buy it and being able to purchase it.”

In his remarks, Eric Trump seemed to be confusing a history of the Trump family’s business interests – he still describes himself as a real estate developer and they own hotels – and a programme of encouraging public adoption of cryptocurrencies. However, the company’s latest initiative is certainly helping to drive interest in crypto.

World Liberty Financial’s $WLFI token listed on the Binance, OKX and Bybit exchanges after a week of pre-market derivatives trading. In the final day before spot launch, $WLFI futures contracts turned over $3.5 billion. Binance alone accounted for $1.52 billion in that activity and open interest reached $360 million. Pre-market quotes briefly touched $0.55 before easing back.

$WLFI’s debut marked the launch of a publicly tradable governance token of the Trump-backed crypto venture, which had already made waves in the crypto world in March by issuing its own USD1 stablecoin that’s pegged to the dollar.

Spot launch

Investors lapped up almost 25 billion tokens – about one quarter of total supply – that unlocked and traded under the ticker symbol $WLFI.

The Binance $WLFI/USDT trading pair surged on its opening day, subsequently swinging between gains and losses, and was up more than 10% by mid-Sept.

What World Liberty Financial is building

Trump first announced the company during a livestream at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, stating “crypto is one of those things we have to do” and “whether we like it or not, I have to do it.” USD1 has a market cap of $2.67 billion, ranking as the 45th-largest cryptocurrency by market cap and the fifth-largest stablecoin, according to CoinMarketCap. Kyle Klemmer, the co-founder of Blockstreet – the chosen launchpad for USD1 – reportedly said in August: “I can certainly see USD1 being the most widely adopted stablecoin in the world by 2028” and “USDC is the first target.”

But the Trumps’ stablecoin doesn’t manifest any obvious advantage over the more established offerings of Tether or Circle.

“USD1 doesn’t have any special feature that distinguishes the coin from the competition,” said Dr Andrea Barbon, a digital assets researcher at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, in a telephone interview. “Except perhaps that its main proponent has also been a political driving force behind new regulations that support the role of stablecoins in the US and global financial system,” he added.

In early July, WLF won the support of 99.94% of its community to make a tradable token related to the project.

While most crypto projects’ technical documentation, called whitepapers, are typically presented with a serious and academic layout, WLF’s whitepaper – which it named “Gold Paper” – stands out. It features a prominent cover page that displays a large (and surely AI-generated) portrait-style image of President Trump, backdropped by a golden seal – aligning with the President’s long-standing gold motif, as seen in the gold-tinted windows of Trump’s Las Vegas hotel and the gold accents in his personal Boeing 757. 

According to the “Gold Paper”, WLF’s mission is to “democratize access to financial opportunities while fortifying the global status of the US Dollar,” and labels private, direct transactions as a “core American value.”

Comparative visualization of the whitepapers of WLF, Bitcoin, and Ethereum

Effectively, WLF stands for the “maintenance of the US Dollar’s dominance” via USD-backed stablecoins, anti-CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currencies), and onboarding Web2 users to Web3 via the “Trump Brand.”

Dr Barbon predicts that the Trump family may continue to use WLF as a vehicle for other projects, meaning that its tokens may reflect the perceived value of current and future initiatives. 

“It’s the hub that the Trump family will likely use for any crypto venture in the future. The token represents a stake in the project, so acquiring the token is an investment that brings exposure to the related WLF activities.”

Who else is behind WLF?

The Trump family owns 38% of WLF through DT Marks DEFI LLC, an entity associated with the family, and has received 22.5 billion $WLFI tokens and a right to receive 75% of net revenues, according to WLF’s website and the Gold Paper. Trump and his family are not yet able to sell their holdings of the tokens, according to the company.

An additional 7.5 billion tokens and rights to the remaining 25% of net revenues were attributed to lawyer, real estate developer, and Trump’s long-term friend Steven Witkoff – father of co-founder Zach Witkoff – according to the WLF’s Gold Paper and the New York Times. Steven Witkoff serves as the appointed US special envoy to the Middle East and Trump’s personal envoy to Vladimir Putin.

On 1 Sept, WLF said the 24.7% of the token’s supply was circulating and 75.3% was locked. Wallet data collected by Bubblemaps confirmed the figures.

Presales

Before launch, WLF ran two presales. In late 2024, it sold 20% of the supply at $0.015, raising $300 million. Justin Sun, founder of Tron, bought about $30 million. Tokens were not tradable in presales; holders got voting rights on certain changes, including code.

From January to March 2025, WLF sold another 5% at $0.05, raising $250 million. Total presale proceeds were $550 million for 25% of supply, implying a little over $2 billion for the full supply. Sun added $45 million in this round, bringing his total to $75 million. “We have no plans to sell our unlocked tokens anytime soon,” Sun said on X on 1 Sept.

Sun’s stake quickly became a flashpoint. Despite being one of the largest known investors, his wallets were flagged. On Friday 5 Sept, Sun said on X his tokens were “unreasonably frozen.” WLF countered that it “responds when alerted to malicious or high-risk activity.” The company said it is in contact with Sun, according to Tron’s statements to Reuters.

Backlash and oversight

In April, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Maxine Waters – who recently, in an interview with MSNBC, described the President’s efforts of firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell and influencing interest rate decisions as being “the makings of a dictator” – wrote a letter to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), warning of the President’s involvement in the project as an “unprecedented conflict of interest,” creating an “obvious incentive” for the Trump Administration to take favourable positions to crypto interests that directly benefit the President’s family. 

In May, White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly responded: “President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest.” The New York Times said in late April the crypto company “has eviscerated the boundary between private enterprise and government policy in ways without precedent in modern American history.”

Later in June, the company’s stablecoin USD1 also faced backlash after Zach Witkoff told a crypto conference in Dubai that USD1 would be the official stablecoin to close Abu Dhabi investment company MGX’s $2 billion investment in Binance. The sum marked the single largest investment ever paid in crypto, according to MGX. Senate Democrats again raised flags, stating in a letter to MGX that “the launch of a stablecoin directly tied to a sitting President who stands to benefit financially from the stablecoin’s success is an unprecedented conflict of interest presenting significant threats to both our financial system and our democracy.” 

The New York Times reported in September, that this investment emerged as the White House advanced a plan to give the UAE access to hundreds of thousands of advanced AI chips. Many would go to G42, an Abu Dhabi AI and tech firm. The New York Times said Steve Witkoff pushed for the chips while World Liberty Financial benefited.

For context, in 2023, Binance pleaded guilty to engaging in anti-money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting, and sanctions violations, agreeing to pay over $4.3 billion. Co-founder and majority owner Changpeng “CZ” Zhao also pleaded guilty and, in April 2024, was sentenced to four months in prison and a $50 million fee. In May 2025, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao applied for a presidential pardon.

According to a 11 July report by Bloomberg, Binance quietly helped write basic code for USD1, meanwhile the $2 billion MGX transaction represented roughly 90% of the outstanding supply and remained in Binance’s wallets. The held sum could reach tens of millions of dollars annually for the Trumps with Binance promoting the stablecoin to its nearly 300 million users, according to Bloomberg. It found that evidence suggested “Binance helped create the coin, helped promote it and took part in its largest known transaction.” In July, CZ called the Bloomberg report a “hit piece” with “so many factual errors” and was cited saying he would sue for defamation.

Other Trump crypto ventures

Trump’s first entry into the crypto space appears to have been in December 2022, when the former President at the time made headlines launching an NFT (Non-Fungible Token) collection which he called “Trump Digital Trading Cards” for $99 each for a chance to win a dinner, Zoom call, or one-on-one meeting with Trump. The cards featured illustrations of the former President in heroic positions, riding motorcycles, shooting lasers from his eyes, or throwing lightning bolts. Forbes estimated Trump made at least $7 million from the collection. Not bad for a guy who previously called Bitcoin a "scam" and said cryptocurrencies were "thin air."

Another memorable attempt at profiting from those who gravitate towards the Trump brand and crypto enthusiasts was in January when the President launched memecoins of himself ($TRUMP) and his wife ($MELANIA). Forbes estimated in June he had earned $315 million from memecoin sales and valued his remaining stash at $427 million.

In April, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. founded a Bitcoin mining company named “American Bitcoin” in partnership with leading miner Hut 8. The company raised $220 million to buy bitcoins and mining equipment. Its shares began trading on the Nasdaq on 3 Sept, reaching as much as $14.00 in the first 30 minutes of trading, before plummeting below its opening price. The stock had slipped to $7.73 as at 20:24 UTC on 16 Sept.

Trump Media & Technology Group – the company behind the President’s social media app Truth Social – also recently expanded into crypto, buying up roughly $2 billion of bitcoins in July and in August, announced a staggering $6.42 billion crypto treasury strategy in partnership with Crypto.com.

The Trump family have made about $1.3 billion through WLF and American Bitcoin, according to Bloomberg estimates.

Trump, World Liberty Financial, and USD1 now remain under scrutiny for the President’s potential conflict of interest, and as highlighted in the project’s documentation, the project relies on the “Trump Brand”, suggesting $WLFI is in for quite a ride.