WLFI自救反成出貨潮：長期持倉者藉機清倉

Original Author: Oluwapelumi Adejumo

Original Translation: Luffy, Foresight News

World Liberty Financial, a crypto project backed by the Trump family, is attempting to rebuild market demand and confidence after its governance token, WLFI, fell to an all-time low.

Facing months of pressure from governance disputes, unlocking concerns, and liquidity doubts, World Liberty Financial has taken multiple measures: burning WLFI tokens, integrating with exchanges, and launching a rewards program tied to the stablecoin USD1, all aimed at revitalizing the WLFI ecosystem's activity.

While these measures have boosted market sentiment, they have also created a new liquidity window for long-dormant holders to cash out their profits. This precisely reflects the core dilemma facing the token: price rebounds remain highly dependent on incentive policies, exchange channels, and market confidence in the project's governance.

After Hitting All-Time Low, World Liberty Financial Initiates WLFI Burn and USD1 Rewards Program

This ecological self-rescue stems from a severe market crash. The Trump-linked crypto project's token price plummeted nearly 88% from its peak.

To restore market confidence, World Liberty Financial has accelerated the WLFI token burn. On-chain data from blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence shows the project has permanently burned 3 billion WLFI, erasing approximately $180.8 million in market value from circulation.

WLFI Burn Record

The community had previously passed a governance proposal to permanently burn 10% of the total tokens held by founders, team, advisors, and partners, totaling approximately 4.5 billion.

Beyond the burn, the project is positioning the stablecoin USD1 as a core value carrier for the ecosystem. Instead of relying solely on demand for its native token, World Liberty Financial is leveraging mainstream crypto exchange infrastructure to drive commercial adoption of USD1:

Binance has listed the USD1/BTC trading pair, allowing market participants to use USD1 as collateral for Bitcoin futures contracts for the first time.

Bybit has simultaneously integrated USD1, listing it as eligible collateral for margin trading, crypto lending, institutional credit lines, and buy-now-pay-later services.

To accelerate adoption, Bybit and World Liberty Financial have jointly launched a USD1 rewards campaign, allocating a 45 million WLFI reward pool. Users staking or holding USD1 can earn up to 20% annualized yield, directly linking WLFI demand with the stablecoin's widespread use.

WLFI Rally Creates Exit Opportunity for Holders

World Liberty Financial's structural burns and high-yield exchange activities triggered a trading rebound in WLFI, but the sudden market liquidity also brought unintended consequences.

Data from blockchain analytics platform Santiment shows that on May 18, World Liberty Financial recorded its highest-ever realized profit and "token dormancy consumption," far exceeding previous levels.

On that day, 1.8 billion WLFI were net sold on the market, all for profit-taking.

The "token dormancy consumption" indicator (number of moved tokens × holding dormancy period) surged to 17.4 trillion.

Significant WLFI Profit-Taking

Santiment notes that this trading peak followed closely after Binance enabled USD1 futures collateral functionality. The data suggests that while the new exchange channel successfully revitalized the sluggish market, it essentially became a tool for long-dormant holders to clear their positions and exit.

Fortunately, the market absorbed most of the selling pressure. After the dual indicators surged, WLFI still rose by 5.5%, indicating that new demand from exchanges cushioned the impact of profit-taking. However, the concentrated transfer of a large number of dormant tokens also implies that for a sustained rally, the market still needs to absorb the massive sell-off backlog from early participants.

AI Financial Warning: Risk Spills Over to Public Markets

The financial pressure within the World Liberty Financial ecosystem has transcended the on-chain token market, impacting the balance sheets of publicly listed companies.

Fintech firm AI Financial (formerly ALT5 Sigma) revealed in its Q1 2026 regulatory filing that digital asset volatility has severely impacted the company's financial structure.

AI Financial's corporate treasury is entirely centered around the World Liberty Financial ecosystem: in August 2025, it completed a $1.5 billion financing (registered direct offering + private placement, settled in tokens), purchasing 7.28 billion WLFI at a cost of $0.20 per token.

As of AI Financial's latest financial report on March 28, 2026:

• The sharp decline in WLFI's market price resulted in an unrealized loss of $348.3 million, reducing the asset's book value to $706.4 million, less than half of the purchase cost.
• Impairment dragged down overall performance: the quarterly net loss from continuing operations was $271.3 million, compared to a loss of only $2.4 million in the same period last year.

More critically, contract lock-ups rendered $706 million in assets completely unusable for daily operations.

According to the token purchase agreement, 3.53 billion tokens are non-transferable for 12 months.

The remaining 3.75 billion tokens are subject to a Securities Purchase Agreement, requiring shareholder approval, amendment of the company's charter, and filing an effective resale registration statement with regulators before they can be sold.

Consequently, AI Financial had $10.5 million in cash, $32.2 million in total assets, and $39.1 million in total liabilities at the end of the quarter, resulting in a $5.5 million working capital deficit.

The cash crisis forced management to issue a clear warning, stating there is substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern within the next year.

To sustain operations, AI Financial has taken on additional related-party debt. In January 2026, it borrowed nearly $15 million directly from World Liberty Financial. Management disclosed this cash may be used for stock buybacks and increasing WLFI holdings, effectively using project debt to simultaneously support its own public equity and the underlying ecosystem assets.

Governance Lawsuits Loom, Ecosystem Controversy Persists

The crisis within the World Liberty Financial ecosystem extends beyond token price volatility, cash shortages, and accounting adjustments; governance rights litigation is subjecting the project to increased scrutiny.

The project is engaged in a defamation lawsuit with crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun. Sun publicly accused World Liberty Financial developers of hiding an undisclosed blacklist function within the smart contract.

His legal filings claim this backdoor allowed the core team to unilaterally freeze user wallets and restrict individuals from participating in protocol governance. World Liberty Financial denies the allegations and has countersued, claiming that Sun deliberately shorted the token and manipulated governance token flows to Binance to interfere with project decisions during its public launch in September 2025.

Beyond the legal dispute, on-chain records show that World Liberty Financial has used 5 billion WLFI as collateral to borrow over $75 million USDC. This action has drawn significant attention from the crypto industry and US lawmakers; Senator Elizabeth Warren has led an investigation into World Liberty Financial and its ties to the Trump family.

She wrote to the SEC requesting an investigation: "World Liberty Financial's actions appear to benefit the Trump family while harming investors, who face difficulties in redeeming their tokens normally. 80% of early investors' holdings are locked, preventing them from selling after the sharp price decline."