WLFI, as a cryptocurrency project closely associated with the Trump family, has attracted market attention with its asset allocation strategy, giving rise to the concept of a presidential selection.
Written by: BitMart Research
I. Project Background
1. Project Introduction
WLFI is a DeFi project supported by the Trump family, officially launched in September 2024. Its core goal is to promote the widespread use of stablecoins, strengthen the dollar's dominant position in the global financial system, and utilize cryptocurrency technology to realize the vision of "Make America Great Again." WLFI is positioned as a lending platform in DeFi, initially operating on the Ethereum network and optimizing user experience using established DeFi protocols (such as Aave v3) rather than introducing entirely new financial tools.
On December 13, 2024, the World Liberty Financial community successfully deployed an Aave v3 instance through its first proposal. Although WLFI has made initial progress, many of the co-founders of the project team are new faces, and the long-term viability and innovative potential of the project remain to be verified.
On February 12, 2025, WLFI announced the launch of the "Macro Strategy," aimed at establishing a strategic token reserve 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 promote asset tokenization. WLFI is working with several financial institutions to incorporate its tokenized assets into reserves and provide transparency through public blockchain wallets. Additionally, WLFI will collaborate with partner institutions on marketing and branding activities to showcase its leadership in financial innovation.
2. Team Information
Role of the Trump Family
Donald J. Trump: Listed as the "Chief Cryptocurrency Advocate," responsible for endorsing the project but not deeply involved in technology or operations.
Eric Trump & Donald Trump Jr. & Barron Trump: Serve as "Web3 Ambassadors," primarily responsible for promoting and publicizing the project.
Core Co-Founders
Chase Herro and Zak Folkman: Both lead operations together, but their lack of experience in the cryptocurrency industry has led to significant background controversy. Chase Herro has been involved in cannabis sales and the promotion of controversial tokens; Zak Folkman previously founded a male dating coaching company.
Witkoff Family: Real estate developer Steven Witkoff and his sons Zach and Alex have close ties to the Trump family. Steven donated $2 million to Trump's campaign and was appointed as a Middle East envoy after Trump's victory.
Core Technical Personnel
Rich Teo: Head of stablecoins and payments, previously founded the exchange itBit and the stablecoin company Paxos, currently serving as Paxos' CEO for Asia. Additionally, Rich is 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 a developer at Dough Finance.
Advisory Team
Alexei Dulub: Founder of Web3 Antivirus, a blockchain security expert, involved in L1/L2 development since 2013.
Sandy Peng: Co-founder of the Ethereum Layer 2 network Scroll, providing scalability technology support.
Justin Sun: As a strategic advisor and the largest investor (investing $75 million), he promotes ecological cooperation with TRON.
_Information Source: _WLFI Official Website
II. Funding Sources and Token Uses
WLFI's funding source is obtained through fundraising via WLFI tokens, which raised a total of $455 million by February 9 (data source: WLFI Official Website). The first round of public sales sold out all 21.3 billion tokens at a unit price of $0.015, raising a total of $319 million. In the second round of public sales, the project raised the unit price to $0.05, raising a total of $136 million by February 9. Currently, the total estimated value of the purchased cryptocurrency assets by WLFI is approximately $325.8 million, including important projects such as ETH, WBTC, DeFi, and RWA. However, it is important to note that the project's operation is not a fund-style issuance of WLFI tokens to raise funds for purchasing mainstream project tokens with growth potential; WLFI token holders share the returns from the appreciation of the asset portfolio. The project white paper clearly states that the WLFI purchased by users is only a governance token and does not entitle them to any rights to distribute investment returns. Although WLFI defines itself as a DeFi lending platform, it has not yet started operations or provided DeFi services, so the WLFI token currently has no value or use.
III. Total Holdings
As of February 2025, WLFI's total asset value is estimated to be approximately $327 million, with on-chain assets valued at about $37.79 million and centralized exchange assets (if not sold) valued at approximately $289 million (deposited in Coinbase Prime for fund management and business operations).
WLFI On-Chain Assets (data source: ARKM)
WLFI Coinbase Prime Assets (data source: SpotonChain)
IV. Holdings Structure Analysis
As a cryptocurrency project closely associated with the Trump family, WLFI's asset allocation strategy has attracted market attention and given rise to the concept of a presidential selection. As of February 2025, ETH occupies a core position in WLFI's cryptocurrency holdings (accounting for 63.8%), followed by WBTC (accounting for 16.4%), with the remaining funds allocated to DeFi and RWA sectors. Notably, despite the ETH/BTC exchange rate continuously declining since December 2024, WLFI has chosen to increase its ETH holdings, highlighting its bet on the underlying infrastructure value of the Ethereum ecosystem. In terms of sector selection, WLFI focuses on leading projects: in the DeFi space, it allocates to the oracle leader Chainlink (LINK) and the lending protocol Aave (AAVE); in the RWA sector, it heavily invests in the tokenized U.S. Treasury protocol Ondo Finance (ONDO) and the synthetic dollar protocol Ethena (ENA), forming a combination of "established protocols + emerging protocols."
In terms of external cooperation, WLFI has formed a deep binding with Justin Sun, who has cumulatively invested $75 million through HTX-related addresses, becoming the largest institutional investor. This also explains the logic behind WLFI holding TRX and WBTC.
In terms of fund management, WLFI recently transferred $307.4 million in assets to Coinbase Prime for custody and unstaked 19,400 stETH for liquidity management. Currently, the project still holds $47.49 million in stablecoin reserves, with future investments potentially focusing on three main directions: 1) supplementing core asset holdings; 2) investing in emerging RWA protocols; 3) paying ecological cooperation fees.
- Ethereum (ETH)
- ETH: 78,610 coins ($209 million, accounting for 63.8%).
- DeFi
AAVE: 16,585 coins ($4.091 million, accounting for 1.2%)
LINK: 219,000 coins ($4.117 million, accounting for 1.3%)
- RWA
ENA: 4.941 million coins ($2.47 million, accounting for 0.8%)
ONDO: 456,000 coins ($612,000, accounting for 0.001%)
- Justin Sun's Assets
WBTC: 553 coins ($53.648 million, accounting for 16.4%)
TRX: 40.71 million coins ($9.772 million, accounting for 3%)
- Other Assets
USDC: 37.54 million coins ($37.54 million, accounting for 11.5%)
USDT: 4.37 million coins ($4.14 million, accounting for 1.3%)
MOVE: 3.68 million coins ($1.989 million, accounting for 0.3%)
V. WLFI Project Logic Analysis: Political Empowerment and Financial Ambition
1. Financialization of Political Resources: Fundraising Tool of the Trump Family
From the perspective of WLFI's token economic model, as much as 75% of the sales revenue directly belongs to the Trump family, while the project's legal structure deliberately avoids direct association with Trump himself. Instead, it uses family members (such as Eric Trump) for public endorsement to strengthen its political binding attributes. This design essentially transforms Trump's political influence into quantifiable financial assets, making it a political fundraising tool rather than a truly decentralized financial product. The market generally views WLFI as a "bet on the prospects of Trump's support for cryptocurrency policy." The behavior of investors purchasing this token is essentially equivalent to indirectly supporting Trump's campaign. This model is similar to the Trump MEME token previously launched by Trump, serving as an alternative fundraising channel outside traditional political donations.
2. Market Sentiment Manipulation: Dual Operation of Funds and Narrative
The project can leverage Trump's political influence to create market sentiment for itself and associated projects. For example, after receiving investment from Justin Sun, WLFI made significant purchases of TRX and WBTC, with the current holding valued at approximately $63.41 million. As of February 9, Justin Sun has invested a total of $75 million, with 84.5% of the funds used to purchase associated tokens. Additionally, WLFI's co-founder Chase Herro recently stated plans to establish a "strategic reserve" with the tokens purchased by WLFI. Although he did not specify the goals and reasons for establishing the token reserve, this topic has been under close scrutiny since Trump promised to establish a token reserve during his campaign last year. Last month, Trump signed an executive order requiring an assessment of the feasibility of creating a digital asset reserve. Against this backdrop, WLFI's initiative to establish a strategic reserve will undoubtedly strengthen market expectations for the "presidential selection" concept. By deeply binding itself to Trump's cryptocurrency policy, WLFI can not only create market expectations and attract more capital inflow but may also facilitate off-market cooperation between the project and political capital, further expanding its market influence.
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
