© depositphotos/leolintang Is this a conflict of interest?
The Trump family on Monday increased the value of its assets by up to $5 billion after their main cryptocurrency venture launched a new digital currency, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The launch of the WLFI token is analogous to an initial public offering: the cryptocurrency can now be bought and sold on the open market, just like corporate securities. Previously, those who privately purchased WLFI from Trump’s company, World Liberty Financial, were unable to exchange their tokens.
The launch appears to be the president’s family’s biggest financial success since his inauguration. The Trump family, including Donald Trump himself, owns nearly a quarter of all WLFI tokens in existence. Three of his sons are co-founders of World Liberty, while the president is listed as an “honorary co-founder.”
According to the company, the founders’ and team’s tokens remain “locked,” meaning they cannot be sold for now. At the same time, WLFI’s listing on the exchange has made it possible to assess the real value of their assets, which was previously based only on private transactions.
WLFI is already arguably the Trumps’ most valuable asset, surpassing their old real estate portfolio. While the family continues to invest in global real estate, it’s the crypto business that has delivered the most tangible results.
Trump launched World Liberty last year during the election campaign, saying the company would “make America great again, this time with cryptocurrency.”
World Liberty bought out the public company over the summer and raised $750 million in cash from investors to buy the cryptocurrency. The unusual deal, where the seller and buyer were tied, could potentially net the Trumps about $500 million, as they keep up to three-quarters of the proceeds from the token sale, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.
WLFI entered trading on exchanges on Monday, with trading volume reaching $1 billion in the first hour, according to CoinMarketCap. On Binance, WLFI opened at 30 cents and fell to 20 cents, within the range that futures on the token had been trading last week. At the higher price, the president’s family’s stake was valued at more than $6 billion.
In addition, the Trump family owns stakes in other crypto projects. In particular, related structures control about 80% of $Trump, a memecoin worth several billion dollars. Also, the trust owned by the family owns a little more than half of the shares of the public Trump Media, which operates the social network Truth Social and deals with crypto assets. This stake is estimated at $2.5 billion.
However, converting assets into real money can be difficult: even a small sale of cryptocurrencies often causes a price collapse.
The price of WLFI on Monday was well above the 1.5 cents that early investors paid for World Liberty tokens last year, so they could now make a significant profit. At the same time, the company has only allowed them to sell a fifth of their tokens.
Like other cryptocurrencies, WLFI is highly volatile: the Trumps’ wealth can fluctuate dramatically. For example, the $Trump meme coin launched in January first rose rapidly and then collapsed.
Critics warn that World Liberty could be a tool for the Trump family, and its growth is supported by investors seeking favor with the White House. For example, the market for the USD1 stablecoin, pegged to the dollar and issued by World Liberty, has been largely sustained by Binance, an exchange whose founder, convicted in the US, is reportedly seeking a presidential pardon.
The White House denied the allegations. Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said: “The President and his family have never engaged in, and will not engage in, conflicts of interest.”
World Liberty CEO Zach Witkoff, son of presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, emphasized last week that the company is a “purely private business” and does not engage in politics, even though “President Trump is the greatest president of all time.”
The company claims that the long-term value of WLFI will be based on real-world developments. In addition to USD1, it plans to launch a mobile app. “This is not some memecoin,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote on X after the launch.
Tad Tobar, COO of crypto company Lorenzo Protocol, which works with World Liberty, said he plans to buy and hold WLFI. The token, he said, gives holders a voice in certain company decisions but does not provide a share of the profits.
“This coin has real potential because it is designed as a governance token for a new open economy,” said Tobar.
While Americans are still not used to their president solving personal financial issues without leaving the post of head of state, Ukrainians should think: “Is Trump ready to sell Ukraine for crypto?”. Details are in the article by Anna Brodsky-Krotkina, head of the Slavic Studies program at Washington and Lee University in Virginia (USA).