WLFI’s Wild Ride: Trump’s Token Burns, Whale Losses, and a $5B Hidden Gain

World Liberty Financial’s native token, WLFI, has attracted significant market activity and mixed investor outcomes in its early trading phase. A whale investor reportedly spent $2 million to purchase 7.4 million WLFI tokens on September 1, only to face an unrealized loss of over $650,000 as of September 4. This reflects the token’s volatility, with its price fluctuating between a high of $0.331 and a low of $0.21 within days of its market debut. Meanwhile, institutional and large-scale participants, including Jump Crypto and another whale wallet, have also been active, withdrawing combined $21.58 million worth of WLFI from major exchanges [4].

The WLFI token, launched by the Trump family’s decentralized finance platform, has seen a governance-driven burn of 47 million tokens, reducing the circulating supply from 100 billion to 99.95 billion. This move was part of a proposed buyback and burn program aimed at curbing price declines and increasing token scarcity. According to CoinMarketCap, approximately 24.66 billion WLFI tokens have been unlocked so far, representing 25% of the total supply. The burn represented 0.19% of the circulating supply and was implemented on September 2 [2].

The token’s price movements have drawn scrutiny from observers and critics. A notable case involves a trader who closed a long position with $915,000 in gains, only to re-enter a 3x leveraged long position that has since turned into a $930,000 unrealized loss. Onchain Lens, a blockchain analytics platform, warned against such FOMO-driven re-entries, citing the risks associated with leveraged trading in highly volatile assets like WLFI [8].

Despite the volatility, the Trump family’s stake in WLFI has reportedly increased in value by $5 billion, based on the current valuation of their 22.5 billion tokens. The tokens remain locked for founders, including Donald Trump, who is listed as co-founder emeritus. The unlocking schedule for these tokens is subject to a community vote, with no specific timeline announced [3]. Additionally, World Liberty Financial clarified that WLFI is not intended as an investment and explicitly warned against acquiring it for speculative or profit-driven purposes [3].

The WLFI token’s governance structure allows holders to vote on protocol changes and other decisions, including the recent burn proposal. However, no single wallet can hold more than 5% of governance power, a measure intended to prevent concentrated influence from insiders. The Trump family and other insiders collectively own more than 20% of the tokens, though their voting power remains capped [3].

As the WLFI token continues to experience price swings and governance activity, the broader market remains cautious. The Trump family’s involvement in cryptocurrency has drawn regulatory and political attention, particularly from lawmakers like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who criticized the family’s reported gains as “corruption” [7]. Meanwhile, industry analysts argue that tokens like WLFI highlight the speculative nature of the crypto market, where celebrity-driven projects can generate hype but struggle to establish long-term institutional credibility [2].

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