Recently, a little-known Web3 fund Aqua 1 announced that it has strategically purchased $100 million of the Trump family project World Liberty Financial (WLFI) governance token WLFI.
As early as two weeks before the announcement, on-chain data had captured clues: an ENS address named aqua 1.eth spent a total of $80 million to purchase at least 800 million WLFI tokens in batches. However, the remaining $20 million of the $100 million subscription has not yet been discovered.
This fund is quite mysterious, and the official website domain name was only registered on May 28. According to public information, Aqua 1 is headquartered in the UAE and focuses on primary market investment and secondary asset management in the Web3 field.
After investing in WLFI, Aqua 1 will also co-develop and incubate the institutional-grade RWA platform BlockRock with WLFI, and plans to establish another fund, Aqua Fund, in the Middle East.
Aqua 1 invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the Trump family project when it was first established. Who is it? What is its secret connection with the Trump family?
Image source: Reuters
Founder Dave Lee may be a South American Chinese tycoon
According to people familiar with Aqua 1, Aqua 1 founder and general partner Dave Lee has a prominent background.
Dave Lee graduated from New York University School of Business and has worked in well-known Wall Street institutions such as UBS Group and Tiger Global. He has nearly 10 years of experience in traditional investment banks and cross-border MA funds and is familiar with the operating logic of global capital markets and strategic investment layout.
In addition to his Wall Street background, what is less known is Dave Lees background as a South American chaebol. Dave Lee was born into a prominent Brazilian Chinese business family. His family businesses span import and export trade, mining, real estate, energy, sports and entertainment and other key areas, with far-reaching influence. It is reported that he has close ties with some powerful royal family members in the Middle East, and the two sides may be brewing a series of strategic cooperation.
Despite his rich background, Dave Lee rarely talks about family affairs publicly, and there are still many unsolved mysteries about his business layout. People familiar with the matter revealed that his investment trends often have long-term strategic intentions and often coincide with subtle changes in international capital flows. Some analysts believe that the resource network behind him may be far more than what is seen on the surface, and he may carry out more secretive and far-reaching operations in many key markets around the world in the future.
It is probably no coincidence that Aqua 1’s first investment was a strategic cooperation with WLFI. Behind it stands a professional team that has been deeply engaged in the Web3 field for ten years. They have accumulated rich experience in key technical fields such as distributed system development and cryptoeconomic design. At the same time, they have capital background and industrial resources spanning South America and North America.
Spending $100 million to target the trillion-dollar RWA market?
Aqua 1’s $100 million strategic cooperation with the Trump family project WLFI may not be a simple financial investment, but a key move by Aqua 1 in the Web3 field, especially in the RWA direction.
From the official investment news of Aqua 1, we can see that the purpose of this investment is to accelerate the construction of a financial ecosystem centered on blockchain development, RWA tokenization and stablecoin integration. With the passage of the US GENIUS Stablecoin Act imminent, RWA, stablecoins, and encrypted payments are the core tracks this year and are also the key directions that Aqua 1 is betting on.
As a project participated and supported by Trump and his family members, WLFIs Web3 layout is directly aimed at RWA and stablecoins. Its goal is to integrate the stability of traditional finance with the openness of blockchain, and it is committed to becoming a bridge between traditional finance and the future digital world.
Currently, the digital dollar stablecoin USD1 launched by WLFI is also the first stablecoin endorsed by the president, and its market value has exceeded 2.2 billion US dollars. The political background aura of USD1 also helps it become one of the most watched and most promising stablecoins after USDT and USDC.
In terms of accelerated adoption, USD1 has been adopted by nearly 20 CEX or DeFi protocols and crypto wallets. USD1 has also gradually penetrated into payment scenarios such as real consumption. WLFI has launched a global debit card supporting USD1, and AEON Pay has integrated USD1. More than 20 million offline merchants in Southeast Asia can use USD1 for payment.
For Aqua 1, which has multiple traditional industrial resources in South America, what is more important than the $100 million financial investment is to catch the Trump familys RWA express and quickly open up the market for the tokenization of its traditional industry resources.
For WLFI, the Aqua 1 team can also assist WLFI in expanding into South America, Europe, Asia and emerging markets.
Currently, Aqua 1 and WLFI plan to jointly develop and incubate the RWA platform BlockRock, but no further details have been released. However, it can be expected that Aqua 1 and WLFIs business layout in the traditional field and the political power behind them will bring natural advantages to BlockRocks compliance and growth.
The strategic ambition behind betting on Trump family projects
On the surface, Aqua 1s first investment in WLFI is aimed at expanding RWA, but its strategic ambition may be far more than that. The vision of the group behind Aqua 1 seems to be to integrate resources in the Middle East, South America, and North America, trying to build a cross-regional Web3 ecological network.
Judging from the naming of Aqua 1 and the future plans announced by its team, Aqua 1 may just be a future branch of the group behind it.
According to the press release, WLFI will also help the Aqua 1 team set up another fund in the Middle East, the Aqua Fund. The foundation will work with core interest groups in the Middle East to accelerate the transformation of the Middle Easts digital economy through blockchain infrastructure, artificial intelligence integration and Web3 applications. It also plans to be listed on secondary trading markets such as the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) to provide liquidity for investors.
The reason why Aqua 1 was able to successfully invest in WLFI may also be based on the cooperation foundation previously established between its backer group and the Trump family in the traditional business field. By investing in WLFI, Aqua 1 also quickly formed a strategic alliance with the presidential family in the Web3 chess game.
Aqua 1s roots in South America and emerging markets, as well as the Trump familys business and political influence in North America and around the world, form complementary resources for both parties layout in the Web3 field.
By integrating financial innovation in the Middle East, resource networks in South America, and market influence in North America, Aqua 1 and WLFI may be working together to create a global Web3 financial ecosystem.
