Mahe, Seychelles, February 17, 2025 — BitMart Research, the research arm of BitMart Exchange, has released an extensive report on World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a DeFi initiative backed by members of the Trump family. This report provides a comprehensive analysis of WLFI’s financial strategy, political influence, and long-term investment potential, making it a must-read for investors, policymakers, and cryptocurrency enthusiasts.
World Liberty Financial (WLFI)
I. Project Background
1. Project Introduction
WLFI is a DeFi project supported by the Trump family, the President of the United States, and officially launched in September 2022. Its core objective is to promote the widespread adoption of stablecoins, strengthen the dominance of the US dollar in the global financial system, and utilize cryptocurrency technology to fulfill the vision of “Make America Great Again.” WLFI is positioned as a DeFi lending platform, initially operating on the Ethereum network. It leverages mature DeFi protocols (such as Aave v3) to optimize user experience rather than launching entirely new financial tools.
On December 13, 2024, the World Liberty Financial community approved its first proposal and successfully deployed an instance of Aave v3. Although WLFI has made initial progress, many of its team co-founders are newcomers, and its long-term feasibility and innovation potential remain to be verified.
On February 12, 2025, WLFI announced the launch of “Macro Strategy,” aimed at establishing strategic token reserves to support leading cryptocurrency projects such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. This strategy will help WLFI enhance stability, promote growth, and build trust, while collaborating with traditional financial institutions to advance tokenization of assets. WLFI is working with several financial institutions to incorporate their tokenized assets into reserves and provide transparency through public blockchain wallets. Additionally, WLFI will collaborate with partner institutions to conduct marketing and brand promotion activities, showcasing its leadership in financial innovation.
2. Team Information
Trump Family Roles
- Donald J. Trump: Listed as the “Chief Cryptocurrency Advocate,” responsible for promoting the project but not deeply involved in technology or operations.
- Eric Trump & Donald Trump Jr. & Barron Trump: Serve as “Web3 Ambassadors,” mainly responsible for promoting and publicizing the project.
Core Co-Founders
- Chase Herro and Zak Folkman: Both co-lead operations but have controversial backgrounds due to a lack of experience in the crypto industry. Chase Herro has been involved in cannabis sales and promoting controversial tokens; Zak Folkman founded a male dating coaching company.
Witkoff Family
- Real estate developer Steven Witkoff and his sons Zach and Alex are closely related to the Trump family. Steven donated $2 million to Trump’s campaign. After Trump’s victory, he was appointed as the Middle East envoy.
Core Technical Personnel
- Rich Teo: Head of stablecoins and payments, previously founded the exchange itBit and stablecoin company Paxos, currently serves as CEO of Paxos Asia. Rich is also an advisor for the SocialFi project RepubliK.
- Corey Caplan: Head of technical strategy, co-founder of the DeFi platform Dolomite, responsible for integrating lending and trading functions.
- Bogdan Purnavel: Chief Developer, previously worked on Dough Finance.
Advisory Team
- Alexei Dulub: Founder of Web3 Antivirus, blockchain security expert, participated in L1/L2 development since 2013.
- Sandy Peng: Co-founder of Ethereum Layer 2 network Scroll, provides scaling technology support.
- Justin Sun : As a strategic advisor and largest investor (invested $75 million), promotes ecological cooperation with TRON.
Source: WLFI official website
II. Funding Sources and Token Utilization
WLFI’s funding comes from token sales, raising a total of $455 million as of February 9 (Source: WLFI official website). Of this, the first public sale of 21.3 billion tokens was sold out at $0.015 per token, raising $319 million. In the second public sale, the price was increased to $0.05 per token, raising $136 million by February 7. Currently, WLFI’s total value of purchased crypto assets is estimated at approximately $325.8 million, including important projects like ETH, WBTC, DeFi, and RWA. However, it should be noted that this project does not operate like a fund raising money through WLFI tokens to purchase mainstream project tokens with growth potential; WLFI token holders do not have rights to distribute investment returns. Although WLFI defines itself as a DeFi lending platform, it has not yet begun operations or provided DeFi services, so WLFI tokens currently have no value or usage path.
III. Total Holdings
As of February 9, 2025, WLFI’s total asset value is estimated at approximately $327million, with on-chain assets valued at around $37.79 million and centralized exchange assets valued at approximately $289 million (if unsold, deposited into Coinbase Prime for fund management and business operations).
WLFI On-chain Assets (Data Source: ARKM)
WLFI CoinbasePrime Assets (Data Source: SpotonChain)
IV. Holding Structure Analysis
As a crypto project strongly associated with the Trump family, WLFI’s asset allocation strategy has attracted market attention and spawned the concept of “presidential picks.” As of February 2025, ETH occupies a core position in WLFI’s crypto holdings (62.3%), followed by WBTC (16.4%), with remaining funds allocated to DeFi and RWA tracks. Notably, despite the decline in ETH/BTC exchange rates since December 2024, WLFI chose to increase its ETH holdings, highlighting its bet on the underlying infrastructure value of the Ethereum ecosystem. In terms of track selection, WLFI focuses on leading projects: Chainlink (LINK) and Aave (AAVE) in the DeFi field; Ondo Finance (ONDO) and Ethena (ENA) in the RWA track, forming a combination of “established protocols + emerging protocols.”
In terms of external cooperation, WLFI has formed a deep connection with Sun Yuchen, founder of TRON. The latter has invested $75 million through an HTX address and become the largest institutional investor. This also explains WLFI’s holdings of TRX and WBTC.
Regarding fund management, WLFI recently transferred $307.4 million in assets to Coinbase Prime for custody and released 194 thousand stETH for liquidity management. Currently, the project still holds $47.49 million in stablecoin reserves. Future investments may focus on three main directions: (1) supplementing core asset holdings; (2) laying out emerging RWA protocols; (3) covering ecological cooperation costs.
Detailed Holdings Breakdown:
- Ethereum (ETH)
- ETH：78,610 tokens ($209 million, 63.8%)
- DeFi
- AAVE: 16,585 tokens ($4.091 million, 1.3%)
- LINK: 219,000 tokens ($4.117 million, 1.3%)
- RWA
- ENA: 4.941 million tokens ($2.47 million, 0.8%)
- ONDO: 456,000 tokens ($612,000, 0.001%)
- Justin Sun-related Assets
- WBTC: 553 tokens ($53.648 million, 16.4%)
- TRX: 40.71 million tokens ($9.772 million, 3%)
- Other Assets
- USDC: 37.54million tokens ($37.54 million, 11.5%)
- USDT: 4.14 million tokens ($4.14 million, 1.3%)
- MOVE: 3.68 million tokens ($1.98 million, 0.3%)
Analysis of WLFI Project Logic: Political Empowerment and Financial Ambition
1.Financialization of Political Resources: A Fundraising Tool for the Trump Family
From the token economic model of WLFI, it is evident that up to 75% of sales revenue directly belongs to the Trump family. Meanwhile, the project’s legal structure deliberately avoids direct association with Donald Trump himself, but strengthens its political binding attributes through public endorsements by family members (such as Eric Trump). This design essentially transforms Trump’s political influence into quantifiable financial assets, making it a political fundraising tool rather than a true decentralized financial product. The market generally views WLFI as a “bet on the prospects of Trump’s support for cryptocurrency policies.” Previously, investors purchasing this token were essentially indirectly supporting Trump’s campaign activities. This model is similar to Trump’s previous Trump MEME token, both serving as alternative financing channels beyond traditional political donations.
2.Market Sentiment Manipulation: Dual Operation of Capital and Narrative
The project can leverage Trump’s political influence to create market sentiment for itself and related projects. For example, after receiving investment from Sun Yuchen, WLFI made significant purchases of TRX and WBTC, with the current holding value at approximately $63.41 million. As of February 9, Sun Yuchen had invested a total of $75 million, with 84.5% of the funds used to purchase tokens related to his investments. Additionally, recently WLFI co-founder Chase Herro announced plans to establish a “strategic reserve” using tokens purchased by WLFI. Although he did not specify the goals or reasons for establishing the token reserve, this topic has been highly regarded since Trump committed during his last presidential campaign to establish a token reserve. Last month, Trump signed an executive order to assess the feasibility of creating a digital asset reserve. Against this backdrop, WLFI’s plan to establish a strategic reserve will undoubtedly strengthen market expectations around the concept of “presidential selection.” By deeply binding WLFI with Trump’s cryptocurrency policies, it can not only create market expectations and attract more capital inflows but also potentially facilitate off-market cooperation between the project party and political capital, thereby further expanding its market influence.
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Risk Warning
Note: All cryptocurrency investments, including yield products, are highly speculative and involve significant risks. Past performance of products cannot guarantee future results. Cryptocurrency markets are highly volatile, and before making any investment decisions, you should carefully assess whether it is suitable for trading or holding digital currencies based on your investment objectives, financial situation, and risk tolerance, and consult a professional financial advisor. The information in this article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment, legal, or tax advice. The author and publisher do not assume responsibility for any losses incurred due to the use of this information.
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