Latest news with #WLFI
Fast Company
7 days ago
- Business
- Fast Company
Trump's World Liberty Financial crypto tokens approved for trading
Holders of the digital tokens issued by World Liberty Financial, one of the crypto ventures of the family of Donald Trump, voted on Wednesday to make them tradable, paving the way for their wide sale and purchase — potentially boosting the value of the president's holdings of them. The World Liberty tokens, known as $WLFI, were sold to investors after the Trump family and their partners launched the venture – a 'decentralised finance' platform that has also issued a stablecoin – last autumn. The tokens were not made tradeable at their initial sale. Instead, they gave holders a right to vote on some changes to the business, such as its underlying code. Early investors have said the primary draw of $WLFI was the connection to Trump and, in turn, their expectations the tokens would grow in value due to his backing. Making the tokens tradable would see investors determine their price, enabling speculation, earning trading fees for exchanges that list them and likely stoking interest from a wider swath of crypto investors. The extent to which the Trump family, which reaps three-quarters of revenues from the initial sales of the tokens, will benefit from their wider trading is not clear. Gains in the tokens' price would, however, swell the value of the family's token holdings, the exact level of which is unclear. World Liberty and Trump's other crypto businesses have faced criticism from Democratic lawmakers and ethics experts as the president's administration reshapes regulations in the booming crypto sector. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren and Democratic Representative Maxine Waters sent a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year in which they said, 'The Trump family's financial stake in World Liberty Financial represents an unprecedented conflict of interest with the potential to influence the Trump Administration's oversight—or lack thereof—of the cryptocurrency industry.' The World Liberty tokens have not been designated as securities by the SEC, meaning they are not subject to the same scrutiny as investments like stocks. The White House has said Trump's assets are in a trust managed by his children and that there are no conflicts of interest. The White House has not released the details of the trust arrangement. The Trump family business has been placed into a trust whose sole beneficiary is the president, meaning that the hundreds of millions of dollars from crypto deals struck while Trump is in office could hypothetically be withdrawn at any time, or at the latest, be at his disposal when he leaves office in less than four years. Trump's company, DT Marks DEFI LLC, was set to receive 22.5 billion out of a total 100 billion $WLFI tokens, according to a description of the project released in October. The president held 15.75 billion of the tokens at the end of last year, according to a public financial disclosure report published last month. The Trump family has made around $500 million from World Liberty since the platform was launched, according to Reuters calculations based on the company's terms and conditions, transactions traced by crypto analysis firms and publicly-disclosed deals. Asked by Reuters how the vote would impact the value of $WLFI tokens held by Trump and his family, the White House press office said: 'This is not an inquiry for the White House.' The Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment. In response to Reuters' questions about how the tokens will become tradable, a World Liberty spokesperson said: 'Additional details are forthcoming.' The venture says on its website that making $WLFI tradeable 'brings us one step closer to building a more open, transparent, and powerful financial system.' 'The American public should be very concerned about the president's vested interests in the cryptocurrency market,' said Chris Swartz, a former longtime attorney at the U.S. government's Office of Government Ethics, including under both Trump administrations, who now serves as senior ethics counsel for Democracy Defenders Action, a legal advocacy group. 'Not only is it a potential conduit for foreign emoluments and other illicit payments, but it puts the president in competition against other cryptocurrency issuers at the same time he is advocating for digital asset marketplace legislation. That is a clear conflict of interest.' 99.9% support The World Liberty proposal to 'formally initiate the tradability of the token,' posted on its website on July 9, was approved by 99.94% of around 20,900 votes. Some voters cited expectations of price gains or support for Trump as reasons for their choice. 'We invested to get rich,' one wrote on the World Liberty website. 'To make america great again,' wrote another. The identities of nearly all holders are hidden behind wallet addresses. A Milan-based person using the name Paolo, who declined to give his full name, told Reuters he had bought 95,000 $WLFI tokens for about $5,000. $WLFI tokens were sold in two initial tranches at $0.015 and $0.05. Paolo said he voted in favour of making the tokens tradeable and planned to hold the tokens until they reach $12. 'Then I try to buy more when the price drops,' he said. The World Liberty proposal said the timing for making the tokens tradeable, and the eligibility requirements, would be determined at a later, unspecified date. Tokens held by World Liberty's founders, team and advisers would not be initially 'unlocked' for trading and would be subject to a longer 'unlock schedule,' it said. The implementation of approved proposals would 'occur within a reasonable time from the passage of the applicable proposal,' according to the project description from October.
Crypto Insight
17-07-2025
- Business
- Crypto Insight
Trump's World Liberty crypto tokens are set to become tradable
Tokenholders of US President Donald Trump-backed crypto project World Liberty Financial (WLFI) have voted to make them tradable, opening the door for the Trump-linked token to increase in value. The proposal submitted by the WLFI team on July 9 closed on Wednesday, with an 'overwhelming' 99.94% in favor of the unlock. It will make the platform's governance token tradable through peer-to-peer transactions and secondary markets. 'Following the vote to make the token tradable, WLFI's governance framework will enable more tokenholders to participate directly in protocol decisions,' the WLFI team said in the proposal. 'This includes voting on emissions, ecosystem incentives, and future treasury actions. This proposal is the first step in handing greater influence to the community.' Token unlock will come in stages, launch plan coming soon Not all the governance tokens will be unlocked at once, according to the WLFI team, and a full launch plan is coming soon, according to WLFI's post on X on Wednesday. The WLFI team outlined in the original proposal that as part of the initial unlock, only 'a portion' of the tokens sold to early supporters will be eligible to be traded. 'The remainder of the tokens will be subject to a second vote by the community to determine the unlock and release schedule,' the team said. Founders, team, and adviser tokens will also not be unlocked. They will be subject to a longer schedule: timing and any eligibility requirements are yet to be determined. World Liberty sold WLFI tokens in two tranches. One opened in October 2024 and sold 20 billion for $0.015 each, netting the company about $300 million. The second opened in January and charged $0.05 per token, which saw another five billion tokens sold, generating $250 million in sales. Transition from closed to open The token unlock is part of a broader plan to transition from being a closed network to 'open participation,' the WLFI team said. Making the tokens tradable will also likely open the door to speculation and price discovery. Once the tokens become tradable, the team said it will continue ecosystem expansion and align long-term token incentives with protocol adoption. Blockchain intelligence platform TRM Labs has been tapped to provide transaction monitoring. Trump family reducing WLFI stake WLFI launched on Sept. 16, 2024 and was endorsed by Donald Trump and his sons — Eric, Donald Jr. and Barron Trump. The president reported a $57 million profit from WLFI in a June financial disclosure with the US Office of Government Ethics; however, the Trump family has also reportedly reduced its stake in the platform since December 2024, holding 40% of the company as of June. Source:
Business Times
17-07-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Trump's World Liberty crypto tokens to become tradable
[LONDON] Holders of the digital tokens issued by World Liberty Financial, one of the crypto ventures of the family of Donald Trump, voted on Wednesday (Jul 16) to make them tradeable, paving the way for their wide sale and purchase, potentially boosting the value of the president's holdings of them. The World Liberty tokens, known as $WLFI, were sold to investors after the Trump family and their partners launched the venture, a 'decentralised finance' platform that has also issued a stablecoin last autumn. The tokens were not made tradeable at their initial sale. Instead, they gave holders a right to vote on some changes to the business, such as its underlying code. Early investors have said the primary draw of $WLFI was the connection to Trump and, in turn, their expectations that the tokens would grow in value due to his backing. Making the tokens tradeable would see investors determine their price, enabling speculation, earning trading fees for exchanges that list them and likely stoking interest from a wider swath of crypto investors. The extent to which the Trump family, which reaps three-quarters of revenues from the initial sales of the tokens, will benefit from their wider trading is not clear. Gains in the tokens' price would, however, swell the value of the family's token holdings, the exact level of which is unclear. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up World Liberty and Trump's other crypto businesses have faced criticism from Democratic lawmakers and ethics experts as the president's administration reshapes regulations in the booming crypto sector. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren and Democratic Representative Maxine Waters sent a letter to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) earlier this year in which they said: 'The Trump family's financial stake in World Liberty Financial represents an unprecedented conflict of interest with the potential to influence the Trump Administration's oversight-or lack thereof-of the cryptocurrency industry.' The World Liberty tokens have not been designated as securities by the SEC, meaning they are not subject to the same scrutiny as investments such as stocks. The White House has said Trump's assets are in a trust managed by his children and that there are no conflicts of interest. The White House has not released the details of the trust arrangement. The Trump family business has been placed into a trust whose sole beneficiary is the president, meaning that the hundreds of millions of US dollars from crypto deals struck while Trump is in office could hypothetically be withdrawn at any time, or at the latest, be at his disposal when he leaves office in less than four years. Trump's company, DT Marks DEFI LLC, was set to receive 22.5 billion out of a total 100 billion $WLFI tokens, according to a description of the project released in October. The president held 15.75 billion of the tokens at the end of last year, according to a public financial disclosure report published last month. The Trump family has made around US$500 million from World Liberty since the platform was launched, according to Reuters calculations based on the company's terms and conditions, transactions traced by crypto analysis firms and publicly disclosed deals. Asked by Reuters how the vote would impact the value of $WLFI tokens held by Trump and his family, the White House press office said: 'This is not an inquiry for the White House.' The Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment. In response to Reuters' questions about how the tokens will become tradable, a World Liberty spokesperson said: 'Additional details are forthcoming.' The venture says on its website that making $WLFI tradeable 'brings us one step closer to building a more open, transparent, and powerful financial system'. 'The American public should be very concerned about the president's vested interests in the cryptocurrency market,' said Chris Swartz, a former longtime attorney at the US government's Office of Government Ethics, including under both Trump administrations, who now serves as senior ethics counsel for Democracy Defenders Action, a legal advocacy group. 'Not only is it a potential conduit for foreign emoluments and other illicit payments, but it puts the president in competition against other cryptocurrency issuers at the same time he is advocating for digital asset marketplace legislation. That is a clear conflict of interest.' 99.9 per cent support The World Liberty proposal to 'formally initiate the tradability of the token', posted on its website on Jul 9, was approved by 99.94 per cent of around 20,900 votes. Some voters cited expectations of price gains or support for Trump as reasons for their choice. 'We invested to get rich,' one wrote on the World Liberty website. 'To make America great again,' wrote another. The identities of nearly all holders are hidden behind wallet addresses. A Milan-based person using the name Paolo, who declined to give his full name, said that he had bought 95,000 $WLFI tokens for about US$5,000. $WLFI tokens were sold in two initial tranches at US$0.015 and US$0.05. Paolo said he voted in favour of making the tokens tradeable and planned to hold the tokens until they reach US$12. 'Then I try to buy more when the price drops,' he said. The World Liberty proposal said the timing for making the tokens tradeable, and the eligibility requirements, would be determined at a later, unspecified date. Tokens held by World Liberty's founders, team and advisers would not be initially 'unlocked' for trading and would be subject to a longer 'unlock schedule', it said. The implementation of approved proposals would 'occur within a reasonable time from the passage of the applicable proposal', according to the project description from October. REUTERS
The Star
16-07-2025
- Business
- The Star
Trump's World Liberty crypto tokens to become tradable
-Holders of the digital tokens issued by World Liberty Financial, one of the crypto ventures of the family of Donald Trump, voted on Wednesday to make them tradeable, paving the way for their wide sale and purchase -- potentially boosting the value of the president's holdings of them. The World Liberty tokens, known as $WLFI, were sold to investorsafter the Trump family and their partners launched the venture - a "decentralised finance" platform that has also issued a stablecoin - last autumn. The tokens were not made tradeable at their initial sale. Instead, they gave holders a right to vote on some changes to the business, such as its underlying investors have said the primary draw of $WLFI was the connection to Trump and, in turn, their expectations the tokens would grow in value due to his backing. Making the tokens tradeable would see investors determine their price, enabling speculation, earning trading fees for exchanges that list them and likely stoking interest from a wider swath of crypto investors. The extent to which the Trump family, which reaps three-quarters of revenues from the initial sales of the tokens, will benefit from their wider trading is not clear. Gains in the tokens' price would, however, swell the value of the family's token holdings, the exact level of which is unclear. World Liberty and Trump's other crypto businesses have faced criticism from Democratic lawmakers and ethics experts as the president's administration reshapes regulations in the booming crypto sector. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren and Democratic Representative Maxine Waters sent a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year in which they said, "The Trump family's financial stake in World Liberty Financial represents an unprecedented conflict of interest with the potential to influence the Trump Administration's oversight—or lack thereof—of the cryptocurrency industry." The World Liberty tokens have not been designated as securities by the SEC, meaning they are not subject to the same scrutiny as investments like stocks. The White House has said Trump's assets are in a trust managed by his children and that there are no conflicts of interest. The White House has not released the details of the trust arrangement. The Trump family business has been placed into a trust whose sole beneficiary is the president, meaning that the hundreds of millions of dollars from crypto deals struck while Trump is in office could hypothetically be withdrawn at any time, or at the latest, be at his disposal when he leaves office in less than four years. Trump's company, DT Marks DEFI LLC, was set to receive 22.5 billion out of a total 100 billion $WLFI tokens, according to a description of the project released in October. The president held 15.75 billion of the tokens at the end of last year, according to a public financial disclosure report published last month. The Trump family has made around $500 million from World Liberty since the platform was launched, according to Reuters calculations based on the company's terms and conditions, transactions traced by crypto analysis firms and publicly-disclosed deals. Asked by Reuters how the vote would impact the value of $WLFI tokens held by Trump and his family, the White House press office said: "This is not an inquiry for the White House." The Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment. In response to Reuters' questions about how the tokens will become tradable, a World Liberty spokesperson said: "Additional details are forthcoming." The venture says on its website that making $WLFI tradeable "brings us one step closer to building a more open, transparent, and powerful financial system." "The American public should be very concerned about the president's vested interests in the cryptocurrency market," said Chris Swartz, a former longtime attorney at the U.S. government's Office of Government Ethics, including under both Trump administrations, who now serves as senior ethics counsel for Democracy Defenders Action, a legal advocacy group. "Not only is it a potential conduit for foreign emoluments and other illicit payments, but it puts the president in competition against other cryptocurrency issuers at the same time he is advocating for digital assetmarketplace legislation. That is a clear conflict of interest." 99.9% SUPPORT The World Liberty proposal to "formally initiate the tradability of the token," posted on its website on July 9, was approved by 99.94% of around 20,900 votes. Some voters cited expectations of price gains or support for Trump as reasons for their choice. "We invested to get rich," one wrote on the World Liberty website. "To make america great again," wrote another. The identities of nearly all holders are hidden behind wallet addresses. A Milan-based person using the name Paolo, who declined to give his full name, told Reuters he had bought 95,000 $WLFI tokens for about $5,000. $WLFI tokens were sold in two initial tranches at $0.015 and $0.05. Paolo said he voted in favour of making the tokens tradeable and planned to hold the tokens until they reach $12. "Then I try to buy more when the price drops," he said. The World Liberty proposal said the timing for making the tokens tradeable, and the eligibility requirements, would be determined at a later, unspecified date. Tokens held by World Liberty's founders, team and advisers would not be initially "unlocked" for trading and would be subject to a longer "unlock schedule," it said. The implementation of approved proposals would "occur within a reasonable time from the passage of the applicable proposal,' according to the project description from October. (Reporting by Tom Wilson in London; additional reporting by Lawrence Delevingne in Boston. Edited by Tom Lasseter and Aurora Ellis)
Economic Times
16-07-2025
- Business
- Economic Times
Cryptocurrency Live News & Updates : SRM Transforms into Tron Inc. Amid Crypto Shift
17 Jul 2025 | 01:25:11 AM IST SRM Entertainment has rebranded as Tron Inc. and will trade under the Nasdaq ticker 'TRON', marking its shift from a toy supplier to a major player in the crypto treasury space with over 365 million TRX tokens. In a surprising corporate transformation, SRM Entertainment has rebranded as Tron Inc., aligning itself with the cryptocurrency sector by stockpiling over 365 million TRX tokens. This shift raises questions about its identity, as it continues to operate in the theme park merchandise space. Meanwhile, political dynamics are at play, with Donald Trump expressing dissatisfaction with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, potentially leading to his dismissal. Trump's coalition against Powell is gaining traction, with calls for investigations into the Fed's operations. In the DeFi arena, World Liberty Financial's WLFI token is set to become tradable after a governance vote passed overwhelmingly, allowing early investors to unlock their tokens. Additionally, XRP's price is on the rise, with analysts predicting it could reach $5 due to increasing demand and positive market indicators. Lastly, Arbitrum's token ARB surged after being listed as a supported chain for PayPal's PYUSD stablecoin, reflecting growing interest in the network. These developments highlight the evolving landscape of cryptocurrency and its intersection with traditional finance and politics. Show more
