World Liberty holders approve WLFI trading, potentially boosting Trump crypto wealth

World Liberty Financial token holders have voted to unlock WLFI tokens, making the Trump-connected asset tradable. A proposal submitted by the WLFI team on July 9 was approved on Wednesday, garnering 99.94% support. 

“This proposal is presented to solicit community input and formally initiate the tradability of the token,” the team wrote in a summary last week. “This would mark a major milestone in the development of the World Liberty Financial ecosystem and opens the door for broader community participation, access, and protocol development.”

Making the tokens tradable will open the door to speculation and price discovery. World Liberty sold WLFI tokens in two tranches of $0.015 and $0.05. The tokens were not transferable when first offered, but gave holders the right to vote on protocol decisions and access to Trump. 

In May, for instance, Trump held a gala dinner for the top holders of the TRUMP memecoin, including Tron founder Justin Sun.

According to the proposal, this governance vote is a step toward transitioning the World Liberty protocol “from closed to open participation” and “begin the next phase of community ownership and engagement.” 

Only tokens sold to early backers will be unlocked, with the remainder of the 100 billion total WLFI supply to be “subject to a second vote by the community to determine the unlock and release schedule.”

Further, the team notes that the protocol founders, team, and advisor tokens “will be subject to a longer unlock schedule than early supporters to demonstrate long-term commitment and alignment with the success of the protocol.”

World Liberty counts President Donald Trump’s three sons as advisors. Close Trump associate Steve Witkoff — now serving as the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East — has also been named an advisor along with his sons, World Liberty co-founders Zach and Alex Witkoff.

In October, the project disclosed that a Trump-connected company, DT Marks DEFI LLC, would receive 22.5 billion WLFI tokens. 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, accounting for a significant portion of the Trump family’s crypto wealth. 

Bloomberg estimates crypto venture proceeds make up about $620 million of the Trump family’s $6.4 billion net worth, including approximately $390 million received from World Liberty’s token sale.

Trump has drawn criticism from lawmakers over his ever-growing crypto interests, which now include a bitcoin mining venture and stablecoin. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren and Democratic Representative Maxine Waters sent a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year arguing the Trump family's financial stake in World Liberty “represents an unprecedented conflict of interest.”

Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.

© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.