Trump Family Crypto Venture Preps Vote With Billions at Stake

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(Bloomberg) -- A crypto token backed by the Trump family is moving closer to trading openly on exchanges, potentially unlocking substantial gains for early insiders, while raising fresh questions about governance and investor protection in the booming digital-asset market.

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World Liberty Financial Inc., a project co-founded by President Donald Trump, his sons and business allies, has initiated a process to allow its flagship token, WLFI, to be listed on crypto exchanges. The July 4 announcement, shared by both Eric and Donald Jr., marked the first formal step toward public trading after months of anticipation. On the forum seeking feedback on World Liberty’s website, a majority of the more than 400 replies endorsed the proposal. No date has been set for the conclusion of the process.

A spokesperson for World Liberty declined to comment on the proposal.

WLFI was unveiled last year as a non-transferable governance token, designed to facilitate community voting on the direction of the decentralized-finance project. Informal trading has already begun on secondary platforms such as Whales.market and MEXC, where the token has recently changed hands at 13 to 18 cents — up from early sale prices of 1.5 and 5 cents in separate rounds.

According to the project’s white paper circulated in October, firms affiliated with the Trump family and their associates including Steven Witkoff — real estate developer and US Middle East envoy — may collectively hold roughly one-third of WLFI’s 100 billion token supply.

At current secondary market prices, those holdings could represent billions of dollars on paper, though how much value would ultimately be realized is unclear.

“I think it could hit easily $2-to-$5 pretty quickly,” said Bruno Ver, an entrepreneur and a WLFI token investor who is primarily based in Dubai. Ver said he plans to sell about 10% of his holdings if the token hits that price range.

If the token’s price were to climb to $2, the stake of the entities affiliated with the founders would be worth around $60 billion in theory, potentially making it the most profitable — at least on paper — Trump crypto venture to date. Crypto businesses have already added an estimated $620 million to Donald Trump’s personal net worth in recent months, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

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The White House has said the president is walled off from his businesses. Trump has put his assets in a family-controlled trust — not a blind trust overseen independently, as previous leaders have used to avoid perceived conflicts of interest.

The current proposal, dated July 4, would unlock a portion of tokens held by “early supporters,” a term not clearly defined in the document. According to the World Liberty proposal, remaining tokens — including those held by founders, team members, and advisers — would be subject to future votes and longer lock-up schedules. The structure is intended, the project says, to demonstrate long-term commitment to the protocol.

If approved, some of these tokens could become tradeable, though sales may remain delayed.

The proposal is likely to be discussed, with voting to follow via the platform Snapshot, before the change goes into effect, according to Vincent Deriu, who runs a popular Discord group for the World Liberty community. He anticipates that the process may stretch into August, if not longer.

Other early buyers of the token stand to benefit. WLFI investor Morten Christensen said he plans to sell all his WLFI holdings if the price rises above $2. He had previously invested in the Trump memecoin, which initially surged in value before plunging within days.

“Many investors will inevitably compare this to the Trump memecoin that surged to $80 within its first week,” Christensen said. “That historical run will likely serve as a benchmark for early price expectations.”

Crypto market maker DWF Labs has acquired a large allocation of WLFI tokens. Chinese entrepreneur Justin Sun has also described himself as an investor in World Liberty. Neither Sun nor DWF returned requests for comment.

World Liberty Financial has yet to release several of its previously-touted features, including lending products. Earlier this year, it launched a stablecoin, USD1, which has a market value of $2.2 billion and was used by MGX to buy a stake in the crypto exchange Binance.

Allowing the token to trade on exchanges could come with risks for early holders.

“Many tokens with a large founder and investor allocation have seen 50% declines over a multiyear period,” said Lex Sokolin, managing partner at Generative Ventures.

World Liberty is just one of many crypto projects affiliated with Trump and his family, including memecoins, NFTs and a mining venture. Trump, who courted the industry during his election campaign, has appointed agency heads friendly to the sector, while the US Senate has passed legislation setting up regulation of stablecoins.

The Securities and Exchange Commission under Trump has also adopted a more permissive regulatory stance toward digital assets.

“What this signals to me is that WLFI no longer sees that it has anything to fear from the SEC,” said long-time crypto skeptic Hilary Allen, a law professor at American University’s Washington College of Law.

--With assistance from Tom Maloney.