WLFI Token Begins Trading: Insights Into The Trump-Backed Crypto

World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform supported by President Donald Trump, has officially launched its native token WLFI. Although the debut of WLFI marks a significant step for the Trump family, its initial performance has been lackluster compared to the anticipation it garnered in recent weeks.

WLFI Token Faces 12% Decline

According to CoinGecko data, the WLFI price had already seen losses of up to 12% by the time of writing. It is attempting to consolidate at the $0.24 mark, which could be the cryptocurrency’s first support line for the rest of the week.

Upon launch, WLFI reached a high of $0.33 and a low of $0.23 earlier on Monday’s trading session. This represents a nearly 25% gap from the current trading levels and the recently established all-time high for the World Liberty Financial token.

Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of President Donald Trump, took to social media platform X to defend the token’s legitimacy, stating, “This isn’t some memecoin; it’s the governance backbone of a real ecosystem changing how money moves. Freedom + finance + America FIRST.” 

World Liberty Financial was established last October, with Donald Trump serving as “co-founder emeritus” alongside his three sons. The company initially created 100 billion WLFI tokens, of which about a quarter were sold for a face value of $550 million. 

However, these tokens were not initially tradeable and could only be used for voting on corporate matters within the company. A vote last month permitted the tokens to be traded, allowing for a nominal total market value of around $6.4 billion based on the current price.

In the initial trading phase, 24.7 billion WLFI tokens are set to be available, which includes 7.8 billion tokens earmarked for a newly announced “crypto treasury” company in collaboration with ALT5 Sigma, a Nasdaq-listed fintech company. 

Critics Raise Conflict Of Interest Concerns 

Financial disclosures reveal that Donald Trump held approximately 15.75 billion WLFI tokens at the end of last year, which, at the current trading price, would be valued approximately $3.6 billion. 

However, the Trump family’s involvement in the sector has drawn criticism among Democrats. Senator Elizabeth Warren raised concerns in an April letter, arguing that the Trump family’s financial interests in World Liberty Financial create a conflict of interest that could influence regulatory decisions in favor of cryptocurrency.

Earlier this year, the company also launched a stablecoin named USD1, pegged to the dollar, with a total nominal value of $2.7 billion. The head of crypto market maker DWF Markets, Andrei Grachev, who is also an investor in WLFI, announced plans to shift $250 million of reserves into USD1.

Featured image from NBC, chart from TradingView.com