What cryptocurrencies have Trump invested in his WLFI project? Have you made money?

Author: Aaron Wood, CoinTelegraph; Translated by: Deng Tong, Golden Finance

World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a cryptocurrency company linked to the family of US President Donald Trump, made its debut late last year and caused a sensation.

WLFI was launched on the eve of the presidential inauguration, causing a sensation. Observers accused the project of preemptive coverage of important cryptocurrency-related events such as the White House Cryptocurrency Summit and triggering conflicts of interest.

Trump is in a unique position to influence the outcome of his portfolio, but WLFI has also failed to protect himself from wider market trends, with token prices falling amid significant macroeconomic concerns.

The Trump administration is about to usher in a hundred days in power. Here is the dynamics of WLFI and how the president’s cryptocurrency investment has been affected.

WLFI's "Golden Paper" has Trump's praising image. Source: WLFI

Founder and ownership of Trump's crypto investment in WLFI project

WLFI was founded on September 16 last year, when then-President-elect Donald Trump announced his march to X. The company was founded by the headlines of real estate giant Steve Witkoff and his son Zach, and co-founders include cryptocurrency investor, Chase Herro, a self-proclaimed "Internet bastard", and social media influencer and former hook-up artist Zak Folkman.

The Trump family also occupies a prominent position. President Trump is listed as "the chief cryptocurrency advocate" while his sons Eric, Donald Jr. and Barron are "Web3 Ambassadors."

WLFI's leadership team. Source: WLFI

WLFI Token Sales

One of World Liberty Financial's first moves was to sell its own tokens. The initial token sale started on October 15, 2024, with $20 billion WLFI for $0.015, earning the company about $300 million.

On January 20, 2025, the day of Trump's inauguration, WLFI announced its second token sale, citing “huge demand and strong interest.” The company issued 5 billion tokens for $0.05, up 230% from its initial release. The second sale was completed nearly two months later on March 14, reaching its full target of $250 million.

According to the project’s “Golden Book”, WLFI tokens will give holders the right to vote on important matters that affect the agreement, such as escalation. The expected token allocation is:

• 35% sold through tokens,

• 32.5% is used to inspire and community development,

• 30% for "Initial Supporter" allocation,

• "Core teams and consultants" account for 2.5%.

All in all, WLFI received $550 million in token sales. $WLFI is for use by qualified investors only and may not be transferred or traded on the Exchange under the terms and conditions. The token's listing date has not been announced yet.

WLFI's portfolio

In addition to token sales, WLFI acts as a crypto fund, amassing many different tokens over the past few months. The details are as follows:

The WLFI portfolio contains a variety of different assets, and 13 of them account for the largest share as of this writing. Most of its holdings are USD-backed stablecoins USDC, followed by Wrapped Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).

According to Arkham, the top 13 assets account for nearly $100 million of the company's $103 million investment portfolio. The remaining value consists of dozens of other tokens, some of which have a total value of less than $100,000.

WLFI owns $5 million Aave Ethereum USDC (aethUSDC), which means they provide USDC to the fund pool on Aave.

WLFI’s portfolio contains eight cryptocurrencies that are non-stable currency assets it purchased (rather than received through airdrops).

• Wrapped BTC (WBTC)

• Mantle (MNT)

• Movement (MOVE)

• Sei (SEI)

• Avalanche (AVAX)

• Tron (TRX)

• Ondo (ONDO)

• Ether (ETH)

Overall, WLFI held WBTC, SEI and AVAX with the most success.

The first WBTC purchase occurred on December 18, when WLFI redeems 103 WBTC for 103 cbBTC. Nearly a month later, WLFI swapped all its assets for ETH. The fund once again began accumulating WBTC, mainly using USDT, and sent it to Coinbase Prime in early February.

WLFI bought AVAX in one go on March 15 and bought nearly $6 million worth of SEI in three times in February, March and April.

Other performances are not that good. As of April 24, major investments in MNT, MOVE, ONDO and ETH all experienced double-digit losses. MOVE suffered a heavy blow, with WLFI's total investment value falling by more than 50%, and investment losses of approximately $2,100,000.

Considering the average price of WLFI token purchases and the current price of its assets, its investments lost an average of $4,280,000.

It is worth noting that WLFI also deposited several early-buy tokens into Coinbase Prime in December and January.

Long before the main action began, WLFI wallets slowly accumulated ETH. WLFI has acquired large sums of more than $1 million worth of funds starting in late November and continues to do so every few days until December 21. It then transferred all acquired ETH (including 3,700 ETH deposited in October) to Coinbase Prime on January 14.

It purchased nearly 57,000 ETH between January 19 and January 21 and continued to acquire until February 3, when it transferred most of its ETH to Coinbase Prime. Coincidentally, Eric Trump also promoted Ethereum on X at the time.

Conflict of Interest and Stable Coins

The strange timing of WLFI's transfer of tokens to cryptocurrency exchanges and Eric Trump's post has raised questions about the Trump family's ability to influence the tokens they hold.

At the end of March, a group of senators from the institution’s banking committee wrote an open letter urging regulators to consider potential conflicts of interest in WLFI, especially the project’s stablecoin USD1.

According to CoinMarketCap, USD1 was launched in early March and has been traded on centralized exchanges Kinesis Money and ChangeNOW as of press time.

Senators fear Trump is in a unique position to influence and bring benefits to his stablecoin project, especially in the context of the upcoming stablecoin framework bill that Congress is about to be considered.

The market plummeted after Trump announced the increase in tariffs on "Liberation Day", and the president posted on the right-wing social media platform Truth Social, saying, "Now is a good time to buy!!" further sparked concerns about insider trading and market manipulation.

Despite these concerns, the Trump administration’s ties to cryptocurrencies are strengthening. His administration has revoked several high-level law enforcement cases against cryptocurrency companies, and his allies in Congress are drafting legislation in favor of the industry.

Cryptocurrency companies seem to be confident in the project. On April 16, cryptocurrency market maker DWF Labs announced that it would invest $25 million in WLFI and agreed to provide it with $150 million in liquidity.