Trump Family Earned $1.55 Billion from WLFI... "Profits for Insiders, Losses for Individuals"

▲ Trump Coin (TRUMP), World Liberty Financial (WLFI)/AI generated image

As an investigation revealed that the family of former US President Donald Trump generated massive profits from the sale of World Liberty Financial (WLFI) tokens, concerns about losses for early individual investors and conflicts of interest are simultaneously growing.

Bitcoinist reported on May 12 (local time), citing a Bloomberg investigation, that the Trump family earned approximately $1.55 billion from WLFI sales, and their total wealth increased by about $660 million when previously undisclosed transactions were accounted for. This investigation was based on an analysis conducted by the information analysis platform Tokenomist.ai at Bloomberg's request.

According to the investigation, World Liberty Financial sold an additional 5.9 billion WLFI to accredited private investors after two public fundraising rounds. These transactions were worth hundreds of millions of dollars but were reportedly not disclosed or explained to the project's broad investor base. This is separate from the more than $550 million already raised in public rounds.

According to World Liberty Financial's own governance disclosure, the Trump-affiliated entity DT Marks DEFI LLC is entitled to 75% of the WLFI token sale proceeds, excluding agreed-upon reserves and costs. Trump-related entities also directly hold 22.5 billion WLFI. World Liberty confirmed the private sale to Bloomberg, describing it as a “white glove” transaction, but did not disclose the buyers' identities or how the funds were used.

The situation for individual investors is the opposite. Early buyers who participated in the public fundraising rounds still have 80% of their tokens locked, preventing them from exiting the market. WLFI traded below $0.06 this week, approximately an 85% drop from its all-time high of $0.46. Eswar Prasad, a professor at Cornell University, told Bloomberg that the Trump family is profiting from a financial venture with a clear conflict of interest by preventing other investors from sharing in the profits.

Conflicts with major external investors have also grown. Tron founder Justin Sun was known as a major WLFI investor but filed a lawsuit against World Liberty in a San Francisco federal court last April. Sun alleged that there was extortion and an illegal scheme to seize his tokens, claims which the project's co-founders denied. World Liberty is also known to have deposited 5 billion of its own WLFI into the decentralized lending protocol Dolomite and borrowed approximately $75 million in stablecoins.

This investigation revealed a structure where a cryptocurrency project linked to a former US president generated large profits for founder-related entities, while leaving individual investors with locked tokens and sharp price drops. Bitcoinist stated that this issue has reignited debates surrounding the political legitimacy of the cryptocurrency industry and investor protection standards.

*Disclaimer: This article is for investment reference only, and we are not responsible for any investment losses based on it. The content should be interpreted for informational purposes only.*