Trump-backed WLFI token tanks 16% on first day of trading

President Donald Trump’s family-backed token, WLFI, tumbled 16% on its first day of trading on Monday, to roughly $0.23. The Trump family and its partners rolled out World Liberty tokens last year through a DeFi venture. At the time, about $550 million worth of tokens were sold, though they weren’t tradable and only served as voting rights within World Liberty Financial. 

Nonetheless, a July investor vote opened the door for public trading, giving Trump’s personal holdings and those of investors a chance at appreciation. The market debut also doubled as a test of how far the Trump name could push demand for its 100 billion tokens. 

The token’s market debut likely marks the Trump family’s most significant financial win since the inauguration. The family, including President Trump, holds just under a quarter of all WLFI tokens in circulation. Trump’s three sons are listed as co-founders of World Liberty, while the president himself carries the title of “Co-Founder Emeritus.”

According to World Liberty, the tokens allocated to founders and team members remain “locked,” preventing them from being sold for now. However, the launch provided a public market valuation for their holdings, which, until this point, were based only on private transactions.

WLFI token early investors are only allowed to sell 20% of their holdings

Announcing the trading session debut on Monday, Donald Trump Jr, the president’s eldest son, described the WLFI token as a “governance backbone of a real ecosystem changing how money moves.”

World Liberty Financial also clarified that only 24.7 billion tokens would be available for trading immediately, with 7.8 billion of that amount funneled into its new “crypto treasury” business. Monday’s debut also limits early investors to selling just one-fifth of their holdings, with the remainder off-limits for now. The restriction, however, doesn’t cover founders such as Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. 

As part of the launch arrangement, a Nasdaq-listed blockchain company is set to receive $1.5 billion, half in WLFI tokens and half in cash, with the funds designated for additional WLFI purchases.

On Monday, the  WLFI token initially spiked 17% to a high of 33 cents per CoinGecko’s data. The coin had launched at about 28 cents on Binance, OKX, and Kraken but was down 15% to 24 cents by New York midday. Now the token is trading at around $0.232.

Additionally, on Monday, the WLFI tokens on exchanges were estimated to have a combined notional value of about $6.4 billion. WLFI has likely become the Trump family’s most valuable asset, surpassing their decades-old real estate portfolio. Although the family has continued to pursue property ventures worldwide since Trump took office, the fast-moving crypto venture has delivered the most immediate impact.

Justin Sun said he wasn’t looking to offload his WLFI tokens for now

Trump held 15.75 billion WLFI tokens as of late last year, worth about $3.6 billion at Monday’s price. However, he and his family have been bashed for their ties to the WLFI project. According to some Democratic senators and critics, the Trump family’s ownership position creates a conflict of interest.

In April, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Maxine Waters said that the arrangement created “an obvious incentive” for the Trump administration to push regulators, including the SEC, to adopt crypto-friendly stances that enrich the president’s family.

Nevertheless, World Liberty Financial has attracted funding, including a $75 million investment from crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, who said Monday he has no plans to cash out his tokens anytime soon.

On the other hand, DWF Markets head Andrei Grachev, also a WLFI investor, stated he planned to move $250 million of reserves into the firm’s stablecoin, USD1. Ghana’s Amoaning Samuel, an entrepreneur, also explained that Trump’s endorsement convinced him to buy WLFI tokens earlier this year. He commented,  “This is a president that believes in crypto and is doing so much for the crypto community . . . It has that legitimacy and ties with the sitting president.”