One Year of the Trump Family's Crypto Project WLFI: When the Referee Joins the Race

Original | Odaily (@OdailyChina)

Author | Wenser (@wenser 2010)

For Donald Trump, 2025 marked the beginning of his "second professional spring"; for the Trump family's crypto project WLFI, 2025 was its "midsummer."

This crypto project, which began in September 2024, achieved multiple milestones within just one year: two rounds of public sales, three large funding rounds, a token launch, the introduction of the stablecoin USD1, and the establishment of the DAT Treasury listed company. Behind these achievements, however, lies even more controversy: Sun Yuchen's initial $30 million investment was questioned as "political donations"; the subsequent launch of the TRUMP token; the trading lock-up period after WLFI's launch; and USD1 being designated as the "official" stablecoin for Binance's $2 billion investment. What has shadowed WLFI and its team is not just the "political entanglement" with Trump, but also a web of countless insider dealings and criticisms. As January 30th approaches, marking one year since the "$550 million WLFI public sale," let's review the various rights and wrongs of this past year and clarify the facts and opinions.

3 Major Controversies of the Trump Family's Crypto Project: WLFI Public Sale, TRUMP Meme Coin, and the Mainstreaming of Stablecoin USD1

In 2025, the Trump family achieved a $1.4 billion increase in wealth through crypto assets, accounting for about one-fifth of their total net worth. During Trump's second term, the Trump family gained significant returns from new projects like the co-founded crypto platform World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the TRUMP meme coin, and the Bitcoin mining company American Bitcoin Corp. (ABTC). Behind this immense wealth lie three major controversies:

Controversy 1: WLFI Public Sale as Potential Political Donations

In October 2024, after completing the whitelist registration phase, WLFI officially launched its public sale at a price of $0.015 per token. However, due to repeated website outages, despite raising $5 million within an hour, it fell far short of its $300 million fundraising goal. Subsequently, WLFI officially reduced the fundraising target by 90% to 10% of the original, i.e., $30 million.

In November 2024, Sun Yuchen announced a $30 million investment in WLFI through the TRON DAO entity, becoming the project's largest investor. Thus, despite official documents specifically mentioning that "the Trump family will receive 75% of WLFI's net income without assuming any liability," this funding round concluded as scheduled.

Subsequently, Sun Yuchen transformed from a "cryptocurrency practitioner" who previously had friction with U.S. authorities into a "WLFI project advisor." This fueled market speculation that the WLFI public sale might be political donations, a suspicion that grew even louder after WLFI's second public sale and the TRUMP token launch.

Controversy 2: TRUMP as a Harvesting Scythe

In January 2025, on the eve of Trump's inauguration as U.S. President, TRUMP, marketed as the "official, authentic Trump meme coin," was officially launched, causing a market stir. Countless people rushed in, hoping to realize their dreams of getting rich (and indeed, many Chinese community leaders succeeded).

Ultimately, however, aside from the TRUMP token issuer raking in $320 million in fees within four months, approximately 800,000 wallets collectively lost $2 billion, with an average loss of about $2,500 per wallet, making it the largest "epic harvesting operation" in cryptocurrency history.

During this process, WLFI's second large-scale public sale also concluded successfully, ultimately attracting $550 million in participation: On January 20th, WLFI completed the sale of 20 billion tokens, raising $300 million; that same day, due to overwhelming demand, WLFI directly opened an additional 5% token sale, with the token price rising from $0.015 to $0.05; ultimately, it successfully raised $250 million.

Thus, stimulated by Trump's inauguration and WLFI's successful fundraising, TRUMP once again became the "money-making machine" and "harvesting scythe" for the Trump family's crypto projects.

It is worth mentioning that after the first public sale, WLFI began purchasing cryptocurrencies like ETH. Relying on the "political halo" of Trump and his family, WLFI's buying power gradually gained significant influence over market liquidity and short-term hot money, becoming a major factor in "News Trading" in the subsequent period.

Controversy 3: USD1 as the "National Team Stablecoin"

In March 2025, WLFI officially announced plans to launch the stablecoin USD1. This stablecoin is 100% backed by short-term U.S. Treasury bonds, U.S. dollar deposits, and other cash equivalents. Initially launched on Ethereum (ETH) and Binance Smart Chain (BSC), it aims to provide sovereign investors and institutions with a safe and efficient cross-border transaction tool.

It is no exaggeration to say that USD1 was born with a strong "Trump color," and subsequent events corroborated this fact.

In early April 2025, major events concerning WLFI and USD1 occurred:

First, the Trump family gained control of at least 60% equity in the DeFi project World Liberty Financial through the new holding company WLF Holdco LLC, replacing the two co-founders as the controlling party.

Second, after 10 hours of intense debate, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee passed the Stablecoin Act (Stable Act). It is reported that the bill will establish a strict regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, requiring issuers to obtain federal or state approval and be backed 1:1 by highly liquid assets. At that time, Democratic lawmakers strongly criticized this, with Representative Maxine Waters calling it "a clear display of greed and corruption," questioning the conflict of interest where the President pushes for relaxed crypto regulation while being involved in the industry. In July 2025, the U.S. stablecoin GENIUS Act, derived from the Stablecoin Act, was successfully passed by the Senate and House of Representatives and signed into law by Trump.

Furthermore, in the $2 billion investment by the UAE sovereign fund MGX into the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, USD1 was selected as the "official stablecoin." This news was also confirmed by WLFI co-founder and Trump's second son, Eric Trump.

Earlier this year, WLFI announced that its entity World Liberty Trust had submitted a de novo application to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on January 7th, seeking a national trust bank charter in the United States. If approved, this trust bank would directly issue and custody its U.S. dollar stablecoin USD1 and gradually engage in crypto asset custody and stablecoin exchange services, primarily targeting institutional clients. Although Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren had requested a pause in reviewing the application, OCC Acting Comptroller Jonathan Gould emphasized that WLFI's application would undergo rigorous evaluation like any other.

On January 23rd, WLFI co-founder and Trump's second son, Eric Trump, posted that the supply of the stablecoin USD1, launched less than a year ago (at $3.74 billion), had surpassed that of PayPal's stablecoin PYUSD (supply only $3.69 billion).

In summary, the "series of crypto-friendly policies" primarily pushed by Trump have also indirectly provided policy support and regulatory convenience for the promotion and mainstream, institutional adoption of the USD1 stablecoin.

Beyond the above controversies, even more thought-provoking are the series of "fancy maneuvers" by the Trump family's crypto projects and insiders in the crypto market.

The Trump Family's Insider Trading Code: Pervasive "News Trading" and "TACO-style Trading"

As mentioned earlier, the Trump family's crypto project WLFI's use of public sale funds to purchase various cryptocurrencies provided a natural breeding ground for "News Trading." Trump's ambiguous political stance and frequent initiation of tariff trade wars provided convenience for "TACO-style trading" and insider trading. Specifically, related insider criticisms include the following events:

3 Trump Dinners Spark External Criticism and Questions

In April 2025, news of a Trump VIP dinner for the top 220 TRUMP holders was officially announced. Subsequently, within a short period, TRUMP token on-chain transfer volume surged to $2.4 billion. The price of TRUMP rose 60% that day, on-chain activity surged 200%, and it recorded "the highest single-day trading volume on centralized exchanges since mid-February." Ultimately, this "token holding competition" ended with an average TRUMP holding of nearly $4.8 million per person, and some TRUMP dinner invitees made huge profits from token trading.

In May 2025, the "Crypto & AI Innovators Dinner" organized by the MAGA Inc. super PAC (Trump's campaign organization) was also successfully held, with a single seat costing $1.5 million or more. These two Trump dinners also drew criticism from politicians including Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who believed this might involve an exchange of "presidential privileges for business investment."

In October 2025, Trump also hosted a tech giants dinner to "raise funds for the new White House banquet hall." Attendees included Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, executives from Coinbase and Ripple; representatives from Meta, Google, Amazon, Lockheed Martin, and Microsoft also attended. This event was also interpreted by outsiders as another example of Trump "using power for personal gain."

Furthermore, the WLFI Foundation's purchases of various altcoins, due to its immense influence, were also seen as a market bellwether, becoming a hotspot for news trading and insider trading.

Hyperliquid 50x Leverage Insider Whale Accurately Bets on Tariff Headwinds and Market Rebound

In February 2025, the "Hyperliquid 50x Leverage Whale" became a market focus. In less than a month, this address precisely timed Trump-related positive news, achieving "three victories":

First, the address profited over $6.8 million by going long on BTC and ETH.

Second, the address opened a $13.45 million BTC short position, initially losing $60,000 but ultimately turning a profit of nearly $300,000.

Third, the address went 50x long on ETH, ultimately profiting $2.15 million in under 40 minutes. The three trades cumulatively profited $9.28 million. For details, see "Reviewing the Hyperliquid Contract 'Insider's' Maneuvers, Accurately Opening and Closing Long and Short Positions".

Insider Whale Reappears: Raking in $200 Million During the 10/11 Crash, Betting on "Trump Pardoning CZ" Ahead of the Market

In October 2025, the "10/11 Epic Crash" brought a historically large-scale liquidation to the market, but such chaos instead became a stage for insider whales.

Among them, address 0xb317D2BC2D3d2Df5Fa441B5bAE0AB9d8b07283ae opened a large short position with a notional value of around $1.1 billion before the crash, profiting nearly $200 million in one day; address 0xc2a30212a8DdAc9e123944d6e29FADdCe994E5f2 achieved a terrifying 12-win streak since October 14th, cumulatively profiting $12.634 million.

The Hyperliquid insider whale Garrett Jin's associated account "bigwinner01" even bet on "Trump pardoning CZ" as early as September 28, 2025, investing a total of $28,677.33 and profiting $56,824.32, a return rate close to 100%. Behind Garrett Jin, according to a previous investigation by on-chain detective Eyes, his information source may come from insiders who have long used White House internal rumors and policy previews for trading. This information is allegedly passed from aides close to the U.S. President's team to a group of traders with privileged information for establishing favorable positions in advance. Currently confirmed core figures involved are Zach Witkoff and Chase Herro, with Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., also indicated as possibly involved. For details, see "How is a 100% Win Rate Whale Forged? Revealing the True Identity of the 'Trump Faction Insiders'".

Conclusion: WLFI is Both a Model Play and a Wealth Creation Machine

Beyond the above controversies, last September, just before the official listing of the WLFI token, a dispute arose between WLFI and the veteran DeFi protocol Aave over early token allocation. From that point, WLFI's ambition to be more than just a DeFi lending platform was already evident. With the entry of WLFI Treasury's U.S.-listed company ALT5 Sigma, Bitcoin mining company American Bitcoin Corp. (ABTC), and other companies into the "crypto battlefield," WLFI's role has become even more complex—now, it is both a model project showcasing Trump's pro-crypto stance and a "crypto regulatory barometer" in the eyes of the crypto market.

After