On Monday, the Trump family’s flagship cryptocurrency firm began trading a new digital currency, generating up to $5 billion in paper riches.
The debut is similar to an IPO in that the cryptocurrency, known as WLFI, may now be purchased and sold on the open market in the same way that shares of a publicly traded corporation are. Previously, anyone who had privately purchased WLFI from Trump’s business, World Liberty Financial, were unable to swap the tokens.
The trading debut was most certainly the president’s family’s greatest financial accomplishment since the inauguration. The Trump family, including President Trump, owns little under a quarter of all WLFI tokens in existence. World Liberty was founded by Trump’s three sons, with the president serving as a “Co-Founder Emeritus.”
According to World Liberty, the tokens of the founders and team members remain “locked,” which means they cannot be sold. However, the trading debut provides a real-world price for their assets, which were previously valued primarily on private sales.
WLFI is perhaps the Trumps’ most valued asset, outperforming their decades-old real estate holdings. While the president’s family has continued to explore real estate projects across the world since entering office, the fast-paced cryptocurrency industry has had the most early influence.
While campaigning, President Trump helped create World Liberty a year ago, promising that it would help make “America Great Again, this time with crypto.”
World Liberty’s surge this year coincided with the president driving the expansion of the cryptocurrency business from the White House, reigning in regulation and promoting the possibilities of private, digital currencies to revitalize the US economy.
In preparation for the WLFI trading debut, World Liberty acquired a publicly traded company last summer and gathered $750 million in investor funds to purchase the crypto.
That arrangement, an uncommon circular transaction with the same firm acting as buyer and seller, is expected to net the Trumps roughly $500 million since they will keep up to three-quarters of the proceeds from the sale of the tokens, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Trading in WLFI skyrocketed on cryptocurrency exchanges early Monday, with about $1 billion worth of tokens changing hands in an hour, according to statistics portal CoinMarketCap.
On Binance, the most popular platform, WLFI began trading around 30 cents before falling during the day to 20 cents, in a range comparable to those predicted by futures contracts related to the cryptocurrency that traded there last week. At the increased price, the Trumps’ share is worth more than $6 billion.
Adding investments in additional crypto firms increases the Trump family’s entire cryptocurrency holdings. Trump-related organizations own over 80% of $Trump, a so-called memecoin worth several billion dollars.
A Trump-owned trust owns somewhat more than half of publicly traded Trump Media, which operates his Truth Social platform and buys and holds cryptocurrency. That share is worth around $2.5 billion.
To be sure, cashing in on this freshly minted money may be tricky, as even a modest amount of cryptocurrency selling might cause prices to fall.
Monday’s WLFI pricing are far more than the 1.5 cents that investors spent last year to purchase the token directly from World Liberty, providing them with an opportunity to profit handsomely. According to World Liberty, those early owners will be permitted to exchange just one-fifth of their holdings.
Cryptocurrencies are notoriously volatile, so the precise quantity of Trump’s money might shift dramatically. The $Trump memecoin, which was founded in January, rose briefly before collapsing.
Critics of World Liberty argue that it is a possible avenue for influencing the Trump family, and that its expansion is fueled by partners and investors seeking assistance from the White House. For example, Binance, whose convicted creator is seeking a presidential pardon, has significantly propped up the market for USD1, a dollar-pegged stablecoin created by World Liberty, as previously reported by the Journal.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that “neither the president nor his family have ever engaged, nor will ever engage, in conflicts of interest.”
Zach Witkoff, World Liberty’s CEO and the son of presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, stated last week that the organization is solely a private corporation that does not engage in politics, despite the fact that “clearly President Trump is the greatest president of all time.”
World Liberty has stated that its cryptocurrency’s long-term worth will be bolstered by intentions to become a major industry participant. In addition to distributing USD1, the business intends to launch a mobile app. “This isn’t some meme coin,” Donald Trump Jr. tweeted shortly after the debut.
Tad Tobar, chief operating officer of crypto business Lorenzo Protocol, which has partnered with World Liberty, stated that he intends to acquire and keep WLFI, which provides holders a vote on portions of World Liberty’s activities, known as governance rights, but not a claim to its revenues.
“Its staying power is real because it’s designed to be the governance token of this new open economy,” Tobar explained.
